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Book 4 


THE 


RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


BY 


f 


LY 
ISAAC TAYLOR. 


—— « Suis ila (ReLIGIO CHRISTIANA) contenta est viribus, et veritatis propria 
Sundaminibus nititur: nec spoliatur vt sua, etiamsi nullum habeat vindicem : immo 
si lingue@ omnes contrafaciant, contraque nitantur, et ad fidem illius abrogandar 
consensionis unite animositate conspirent.”? ARNOBIUS 


A New Writion, 


REVISED, WITH AN ADDITIONAL SECTION. 


Willy 


BOSTON : 
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY, 


135 WASHINGTON STREET. 


1867. 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/restorationofbel0Otayl_0 


CONTENTS. 


—¢—. 
PAGE 
Christianity in Relation to its ancient and modern Antagonists 5 
Where best the Christian Argument may be carried forward 15 
England the fittest Arena for the Christian Argument 27 


The Religious Condition of the Roman World in the Time of Whence 


ss 


der Severus , ’ 40 
The Christian Belief had Periad | the Roman 1 Civ ilization i in the Third 
Century : ; : : ‘ 54 
Christianity — an Insoluble Problem to the Roman Government . 60 
Perplexities of the Roman Government in dealing with the new 
Religion : ; : : : 67 
The Obligations of Conscience were at length recognized 77 
Martyrs for a Fact; and Martyrs for a Doctrine 83 
Relative Force of Science and of Matters of Religious Opinion 92 
The Question of Christianity is determinable : . 109 
Classification of the Books of the New Testament in Relation to the 
present Argument ° See . . 124 
General Conclusion as to the Non-Supernatural Epistles . 166 
-The Seven Apostolic Epistles which affirm or allude to Miracles . . 173 
Conclusion as to the Seven Epistles which affirm Miracles . 204 
The Force of Congruity in Relation to Christianity and its Miracles . 213 
The Alternative — Christianity or Atheism . 235 
The Three Purposes of Christ’s Mission, as attested by Miracles - 252 
The First Intention of Christ’s Mission, as attested by Miracles . 259 
The Second Intention of Christ’s Mission, as attested by Miracles . 304 
The Third Intention of Christ’s Mission, as attested by Miracles . . 336 
The Cycles of Christianity : ) : . 349 
The Present Position of the Argument concerning Christianity: 
Ernest Rénan . 367 


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THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


To * * * *K KO 


Our conversations of late have issued in 
opening interminable questions, on the right hand and 
on the left, but hitherto they have not brought us to 
a conclusion on any one subject. There has always 
been common ground whence we might take our start, 
and we have been able to keep company some way 
on the road; but soon the one or the other hag gone 
off, drawing the immediate argument after him toward 
some wholly new region. 

You will easily recal instances of this sort of wan- 
dering, which, while it has seemed to do violence to 
logic, has obeyed—so we have felt it—the call of a 
deep moral necessity. The chance of the hour has 
given us our first impulse; but a law of thought not 
to be resisted, has carried us forward from that for- 
tuitous point towards an unknown centre upon which 
all thought converges. The Newspaper may have given 
rise to an earnest discussion, touching the condition of 
the laboring classes, manufacturing or rural; thence 
onward we have gone till we found ourselves encircled 
by the most abstruse questions, in approaching which 
the depths of Theology were in front of us. We 

ab: (5) 


6 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


have debated the principles of Taxation: thence has 
a path opened itself into the subject of the moral 
relationship of governments towards the people; and 
thence onward again toward the problem of Religious 
Establishments. We have incidentally mentioned some 
points of Biblical criticism, and have gone on toward 
subjects, not unconnected indeed therewith, but of in- 
finitely greater importance than can belong to any 
such question. 

In a word, to approach what one might call surface 
questions, has always shown us that an interior be- 
neath it was to be first explored. Or if the interior 
were brought under discussion, its many results and 
issues carried us over an unlimited expanse upon the - 
field of practical science. 

This incessant wandering we must not impute to 
ourselves altogether as a fault. If in these instances 
we had been less desultory, and more logical; we should 
have paid respect to the forms of argumentation, only 
in proportion as we had disregarded those relationships 
that are more real, and that now are felt to be so by 
all men. 

This circuit-going in all directions, at what point 
soever serious controversy or incidental conversation 
takes its start, is the marked feature of the times pre- 
sent; and it has, as I think, not only a deep meaning, 
but a good, or as we say, an auspicious meaning. 
Conversation among intelligent men, and the literature 
of the day, show the same characteristic; and as we 
cannot fail to notice it, we should not fail to gather its 
import. Is it not just now as if an invisible tyranny 
were driving the minds of men onward and onward, 


SHE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. s 


or in perpetual circuits, until they shall have become 
spent in fruitless courses over the unenclosed fields of 
speculation ? 

If you ask what this discursiveness means, and 
what will be its end,—I think it shows that now at 
length the true step forward toward a more sure 
agreement and a better understanding, at least among 
the educated classes of the community, has actually 
been taken; and that we and others, including many 
from whom we most differ, have by this time gone 
some way forward on a road which it will not be 
necessary hereafter for ourselves, or for our successors, 
to retrace. ‘To look abroad upon the world of opinion, 
in this country, or elsewhere, what one sees might 
seem to resemble the hurrying hither and thither of 
the sparks upon a burned paper; all which sparks, 
bright as they are, are soon to find their rest in ashes 
and blackness. Yet not so, I think, in the social sys- 
tem; for here the sparks are showing a tendency in 
one and the same direction ; or, like the falling stars 
and meteors of an autumn sky, they all give notice of 
their bearing upon the great planetary movements. 

You will be told by some around us—and they are 
men whose judgment well deserves to be regarded— 
that they have seen the end of several movements 
not less promising than this to which we are linked, 
and that no notable result in which we could rejoice, 
has marked the return of men’s minds to their custo- 
mary inaction. 

I must adhere to my hopefulness so long as I see 
clearly a ground of expectation that what is bright is 
at hand. It has come to be felt and seen, and to be 


8 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


acknowledged too, on all sides, that TRUTH, in relation 
to any particular subject, touching immediately or re- 
motely the well-being of men—either the individual 
man, or the social—can be only one portion of, or one 
aspect of, UNIVERSAL TRUTH; and that if we would 
secure ourselves against mischievous mistakes and illu- 
sions as to that single subject, whatever it may be, we 
must know, not merely the whole of itself, but what it 
borders upon; and then the bordering of these remoter 
neighbours, one upon another, and so onward and round 
about must we advance, until we have fairly made the 
circuit of all things, or of all things which it is granted 
to man to measure and compass. 

This feeling—this acknowledgment—in professing 
which all are agreed, runs parallel with the axiom of 
Natural Philosophy, namely, that there are no insu- 
lated sciences; but that all investigations of nature, 
and all paths followed in the abstract sciences, tend 
toward a centre, and are only so many independent 
contributions toward a consentient system, which will 
at length present itself as a harmony, and which will 
then assign its place to every item of that knowledge 
which we shall have made our own, concerning the 
Material Universe. 

The perception we have acquired concerning the in- 
ter-relation and absolute dependence, one upon another, 
of moral, religious, and political questions, has not been 
borrowed from the Physical Sciences; nor is it an in- 
ference that has been carried over from one side of 
philosophy to the other: for although, in its rise, it has 
been nearly contemporaneous, it_has had its own and its 
proper source, springing up from within the intellectual 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 9 


world. It is a feeling that has flowed from a far deeper 
mode of thinking, on all such subjects, than has hither- 
to prevailed ; and it has shown the presence of a more 
serious desire, or, one might say, an impatience, an 
anxiety, almost an agony, impelling men to reach, if it 
be possible, a solid ground of belief. 

It is natural and inevitable that this urgent feeling 
should drive men in from the surface of all subjects, and 
compel them to dig, and still to dig, until, from all 
sides, they have come to encounter each other, working 
in the same shafts, and pursuing the same seams and 
veins of thought. From these underground encounters, 
startling as they are when they bring those who beneath 
the upper sky are declared adversaries, face to face in 
the mine and so near to the very pith of the world, will 
lead (so I must profess to think) to a common under- 
standing, to a belief generally, if not universally as- 
sented to, and to a CONCLUSION, once for all arrived at, 
and which thenceforward will, with its inferences, be 
brought to bear upon every practical question that can 
be thought to stand related to it in morals, politics, and 
education, as well as Religion. 

We have not however, as yet, advanced quite abreast 
on the two highroads of Philosophy—the physical and 
the intellectual (or moral and religious) ; for on the for- 
mer a rule is well understood and is universally obeyed, 
which on the latter is but dimly seen, or 1s perpetually 
broken. 

What I mean is this—that in all departments of the 
physical sciences, both abstract and applicate, and on 
all fields of accumulated industry— natural history, for 
instance—eyery one, every inquirer, every reasoner, 


10 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


every collector of facts, is left to pursue his path in his 
own mode, and is held to be exempt from all interfe- 
rence on the part of others ; as if what one had learned 
or was teaching, could supersede, or might interdict the 
inquiries of another. Although, in the issue, there 
will be ONE PHILosopHy, and although there should be 
fellowship among the labourers, none are to put bars 
across the paths of their companions. This sort of 
jealousy, as it would be groundless, so must it be fruit- 
less in the end; and meantime it would be mischiey- 
ous. Nothing of this sort is ever thought of, or at- 
tempted, in the world of physical science. 

So much as this cannot be alleged in behalf of those 
branches of philosophy and of learning which touch hu- 
man nature at the core. On this ground attempts are 
often made to intercept the progress of inquiry in some 
one direction, as if it might disturb what has been as- 
certained on another. ‘Too often—and we are all more 
or less in fault—we carry inferences over from one field 
to another; or, we are in too great haste so to do; for 
undoubtedly, in the end, all inferences, all deductions, 
will interlace and join on one another. 

Let me state the case in some such way as that in 
which it often meets us in these times. I am (let us 
suppose it) addicted to antiquarianism—to historical 
criticism—to ethnological philology, and to the kindred 
subjects. You perhaps are conversant with political 
economy, or the like social interests, and you amuse 
yourself also with geology. NowI have convinced my- 
self in my own modes of inquiry, and on my own pro- 
per ground, that things are so and go; or that the 
transactions of remote ages have been truthfully re- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. \1 


ported. You ought not then to come in, and with a 
supercilious air tell me that I may as well spare myself 
so much learned toil, and that you will be happy to 
save me the whole of my expenditure in midnight oil; 
for that you, in your department, have ascertained, be- 
yond doubt, that I have been deceiving myself, and am 
blindly misleading others. This is insufferable :—it is 
not scientific; it isan outrage committed upon the com- 
mons of Philosophy. If you say you do but retaliate ; 
I reply I will take care to give you in future no cause 
of offence in this way, and I shall disregard any such 
interferences on your part. 

It is easy to foresee what those occasions are in which 
I am likely to claim protection under the shield of this 
rule of our modern Philosophy. The rule itself is a 
main article in the Magna Charta of our intellectual 
liberties, and whoever infringes these privileges, forfeits 
his claim to be much listened to, even on his own 
ground. 

Ido not say that we, on our side—I mean the side 
of Religious Belief—have not in any instances been 
blameworthy in this same manner—all parties have 
been persecutors in their time: but I think I shall show 
that acts of attempted interference, as well as argu- 
mentative arrogance and intolerance, have of late shown 
themselves on the other side in a tenfold proportion. 
Too much, and too often, we on our side have cowered 
before the unseemly bearing of those who have assailed 
us. If there has been any of this giving ground, it is 
more than enough, it is more than was due; and it is 
time that we should repel all such violences. When I 
say repel, | mean—not yield an inch to those who thus 


12 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


offend against the acknowledged maxims of what may 
be called the modern philosophical courtesy. 

Not only on my side would I wholly abstain from the 
language of intimidation or of interdiction—not only 
not say, ‘you must not approach this or that subject, 
for the ground is sacred;” but rather would invite 
every one to follow up his own course of inquiry in the 
mode that best suits himself. If he does so in a man- 
ner that is unseemly, flippant, inconclusive; or if he so 
writes and speaks as to betray an arrogant and captious 
temper, and a sinister purpose, in doing so he provides 
against himself a most effective sort of reply, and I 
need not give myself any trouble on his behalf. 

As to what is written or spoken ingenuously and sin- 
cerely, or as we say “‘in good faith,” with the avowed 
intention to loosen or subvert Religious Belief, I will 
never call the author of such utterances my enemy. So 
firm and thorough is my own belief, that I can well af- 
ford to be thus charitable,—nay more: although in re- 
gard to the immediate welfare of many I must deeply 
deplore what I see to be taking place around me, in all 
circles, I have a perfect confidence in the issue, after a 
time, of the intellectual movement which is now in pro- 
gress, so far as it is impelled by honestly intended men. 
If not every where, yet in this country, such a restora- 
tion of Religious Belief as could not have resulted 
from any other conjunction of causes, will be its conse- 
quence. 

In what I now propose to do there is included no 
intention to take in hand any recent book or books, as 
if to give it or them an answer: this would be to enter 
upon an endless and unavailing labour. I am not ig- 


TIE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 13 


norant of what has lately been written; but I shall 
pursue my own track of thought in my own mode, and 
leave others to do the like in theirs. 

If I think or speak of any man as an ADVERSARY, I 
do so in a sense purely logical; and I do not allow the 
word to bring with it into my bosom any of those feel- 
ings with which, in fact, I regard the principles he is 
endeavouring to establish. These principles I utterly 
condemn, and the influence he has acquired over the 
minds of others I would gladly destroy; but toward 
himself I harbour no unkindly sentiment: how should 
I do so when I think of him as struggling, without help 
or hope, in the grasp of perplexities with which every 
thoughtful and seriously-minded man has had to con- 
tend, at some stage of his course, or does still contend 
in times of mental lassitude. ‘Those who have suffered 
no anguish in their past history, and who have passed 
through no hours of agony, are men (enviable perhaps! 
but) with whom neither my adversary nor myself should 
have nearly so much sympathy as we should with each 
other.” 

It is much to be wished that those who at this mo- 
moment are assailing Religious Belief, would deny them- 
selves the poor and cheap gratification, in which they 
almost all of them give themselves free leave to indulge, 
that of calling the adherents and advocates of Belief— 
“ fanatics.” j 

And yet, perhaps, this seemingly arrogant practice 
should be pardoned in those guilty of it, inasmuch as it 
does not necessarily spring from an intolerant temper, 
or personal malignity ; but comes only from the felt 
necessity of the position in which those, on that side, 

2 


14 THE RESTORATION -OF BELIEF. 


have placed themselves: for if indeed those whose be- 
lief these writers assail are not “‘ fanatics ;” if, on the 
contrary, they, or many of them, are as well informed 
and as highly cultured and as capable of reasoning as 
themselves, if they are equally serious and honest, 
and in a word, are everyway as “‘good men,” and 
all the while are BELIEVERS, then is Belief proved 
to be reasonable; for reasonable men profess it, 
and the contrary assumption falls to the ground; 
then is Belief that conclusion which will be accepted 
and rested in, after full inquiry, by the great majority 
of minds in a sound state. So it will be, those seasons 
of reaction excepted, like the present, in which a re- 
vulsion is taking place and which is attributable to 
obvious causes. 

Whoever calls me a fanatic, simply because I be- 
lieve, puts into my hand a lever by means of which I 
shail upheave his stronghold. 


WHERE BEST THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT MAY BE CAR- 
RIED FORWARD. 


GREAT arguments, we have said, cannot be long held 
apart, or permanently disjomed. As this is true in 
natural philosophy, so especially is it true in whatever 
touches human nature and the social welfare of man, 
morally or religiously. It is not easy to disconnect 
even questions of politics with religious principles; for 
through the medium either of questions concerning 
Religious Establishments, or of Religious Liberty, or 
Public Education, the one set of principles interlocks 
itself with the other. , 

Take up what subject we may among the many 
which now engage attention, one must reckon upon 
the entailed necessity of passing on from that point to 
its next neighbour, and so forward. Nevertheless a 
choice may be open to us always as to the starting- 
point that is taken. | 

Of some of these arguments it may be said that 
they possess an inherent logical title to precedence: 
they present themselves as first to be disposed of in 
the order of dialectic sequence. For other weighty 
questions it may be pretended that, if determined in a 
certain mode, they bring all other argumentation, all 
balancing of probabilities, all inquiries concerning pos- 
sible improvements or progress, to a dead stop; they 
throw a pall over the world, and its fruitless agitations. 


Again, there are questions affecting the welfare of 
(15) 


16 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


classes which cry for instant consideration, if, indeed, 
hearts of flesh beat in our bosoms. Of what account 
are dogmas, or principles of any sort, when placed in 
comparison with practical measures, tending to assuage 
physical suffering, or to gladden the homes of thou- 
sands of our fellow-men? Such pleas are good; but 
they need not overrule our present purposes. Let 
every one take to the path that best suits himself. 

If a preference is given to subjects not of this lat- 
ter urgent sort, and which affect the welfare, not of 
classes of men, but of men universally, we may then 
make our choice in adopting one of two methods—the 
first of which may be called the GERMAN, and the-~ 
other the ENGLIsH mode. 

The German mind inclines to begin at the begin- 
ning, rather than to seize the main point midway, or to 
catch it in its concrete form. Whatever it has to do 
with, although it be a surface question, it takes a pre- 
liminary plunge among the most profound abstractions. 
A metaphysical, more than a scientific, law of thought 
prevails with it, and the simplest adjustment of things 
about us must show its reason, as related to a theory 
of the universe, which, perhaps, has scarcely yet fledged 
itself, as newly broken forth from chaos. 

Not so the English mind, which has more inclina- 
tion toward the concrete than the abstract. At least 
we must say it seeks the practical, loves whatever is 
well-defined and certain, and never hesitates to accept 
and use what is sure and at hand, although much room 
there may be left for argument on the a priori side. 

In the present instance, then, | must make my 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 17 


choice of a preliminary subject in compliance with the 
tendency of the English mind. 

At this time, when all things are brought into doubt, 
if there be in sight a path that is open and straight 
before us,—if there be, on any side, ground that feels 
firm to the foot,—if quite near at hand there are objects 
that are palpable,—if around us we may see what we 
have known to be good, and which is our own; then 
upon such a path will we set forward, upon such ground 
will we first essay to tread, such objects will we grasp, 
and to such possession will we assert our right. Thence, 
and from such ground, will we adventure forward and 
outward, toward the dark unknown. 

I shall here be stopped by an exception taken against 
any renewal of the endeavour to link Religion to His- 
tory, or to send us back for our faith and morals to past 
ages. I must do so from the very necessity of the case. 
Beier and History God has joined, nor shall man, 
to the end of time, succeed in effecting a divorce. Re- 
ligion, disjoined from History, is a flickering candle, 
held in the hand of one who looks back upon utter 
darkness behind him, and looks into the blackness of 
darkness in front of him. 

But besides this inherent necessity of the case, there 
meets us an adjunctive necessity for taking the same 
course, and for travelling back to ages past. Kyven if 
Belief and History were not thus wedded, DisBELIEF 
has its equally firm hold upon antiquity. In every 
form of it, it has its ancestry, and it must not ask 
now to be spoken to as if we had not already, and long 
ago, made acquaintance with it. 

Is it, indeed, to be reckoned as a fault, or is It a 

Dx 


18 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


disqualification for engaging in argument, to have be- 
come, in some degree, conversant with the fortunes of 
man in past time? If not, then this species of ac- 
complishment brings with it an irresistible feeling, 
prompting one to recognize in what is recent, the very 
counterpart of what is of remote origin. 

It is not merely this, that the special objections 
which have been of late urged against Christianity, 
against the Old Testament Books, and the New, are 
all substantially the same as those which Origen and 
the early Apologists encountered and refuted. This is 
not all; for those speculations, more deep and wide, 
more sweeping and formidable in aspect, which just 
now are redressed and presented as the ripened fruits 
of the human mind, which at length is freeing itself 
from its thraldom of centuries—these same speculations, 
fresh complexioned as they are, differ in little, beside 
their wording, from the profundities of the Oriental 
and Alexandrine philosophy, as uttered and edited by 
the several classes of Gnostics, Manichees, and others. 
If, then, Belief-carries us back to antiquity, so does 
Misbelief; and we cannot refuse to follow a double 
guidance, that is sure in both instances. 

As a proper preliminary, therefore, to any inquiries 
that may touch the philosophy of human nature, or 
implicate what is abstruse in theology, I must persist 
in the course I have chosen; and shall essay to tread 
upon solid ground as far forward as it offers itself to 
the foot. History zs solid ground; or, to exclude ex- 
ceptions, let us say that, within the region it embraces 
perfectly solid ground is discoverable in all directions. 
This is manifestly the case when certain historic: po- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 19 


sitions are brought into comparison, as to their demon- 
strative value, with any assumed principles of abstract 
science (not mathematical). It is certain that the 
Normans brought the Saxons under their sway in the 
eleventh century; but it is questionable whether a 
chivalrous race will always succeed in vanquishing an 
agricultural and a trading people. It is certain that 
Augustus established and consolidated a despotism 
upon the ruins of that republic, in the attempt to 
maintain which Brutus pointed his sword against 
Cesar, and in despair of restoring which he fell upon 
it himself. But it may be doubted whether a republi- 
can government, such as that of aneient Rome, neces- 
sarily finds its end and issue in the hands of an auto- 
crat. It is more certain that Socrates swallowed hem- 
lock by the vote of his fellow-citizens, than it is that 
a people like the Athenians, of that age must have 
been taught to listen to and admire Plato, before they 
could tolerate teaching such as that of Socrates. 

But now, although matters of history do possess this 
absolute and this comparative certainty when placed 
beside abstruse or abstract principles; and although it 
be true that no inferences from those principles can 
ever be admitted to abate a jot of the certainty of 
what zs certain in history, this relative value of the 
two species of evidence will not be seen by all minds 
alike. On the contrary, some minds from want of cul- 
ture, some from an irresistible propensity toward 
paradox, some from a vague and dreamy unfixedness 
of temper, will always fly off from the better evidence, 
and betake themselves to the worse. 

With many, the most misty abstractions which look 


20 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


well at a distance are eagerly pursued : matters of fact, 
irresistibly evident, are scouted or forgotten. Culture 
has much to do with that faculty of the understanding 
on which history laysa firm hold. Apart from a cer- 
tain amount of culture, we do not find that history, as 
a reality past, comes home to the intellectual conscious- 
ness. Hence springs a disadvantage attaching, in the 
nature of things, to the labors of those who aim to 
impart an historic belief to the masses of the people in 
the way of definite proof. The process finds an indis- 
pensable quality wanting in those who are the subjects 
of it: hence too, of course, comes that poor advantage 
which is snatched at by those whose aim it is to loosen 
an historic belief from the minds of the same classes. 

There is nothing of arrogance in what is here al- 
leged. Every educated man, whether preacher, lecturer, 
or teacher, in any line, scientific, literary, or profes- 
sional, well knows, and constantly feels, that, do his ut- 
most, it is but a fragment of his own vivid perceptions 
of his subject that he can lodge in the reason and the 
imagination of his imperfectly instructed hearers. 
Therefore will it always be an easy task, in dealing with 
such, to dislodge materials that have no cement, and to 
strew the ground with the ruins of a structure that has 
not settled down on its foundations, and has no coher- 
ence. Because it is so easy to do this, writers who are 
impatient to win notoriety, and who would fain be fol- 
lowed by troops of disciples, address themselves, with- 
out scruple, to those whose consent, when obtained, has 
no value; and whose plaudits should make a wise and 
sincere man blush. 

Tn all departments of knowledge it is the RusuLTs 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. o1 


that are for the many; but the procnss through which 
results have been reached are for the few. Especially 
must it be so in the departments of history and criti- 
cism. Results may be rendered into the vernacular ; and 
when thus translated they become public property. 
Processes of inquiry are carried forward in symbol, and 
these signs always imply that a knowledge is already 
possessed, ten times outmeasuring that to which the 
bare symbol gives expression. The imperfectly edu- 
. cated suffer no real damage on this ground, so long as 
they are not tampered with by sophists. Where the 
Press, the Pulpit, the Platform, the Class-room, are 
quite free, popular incompetency, as to matters of sci- 
ence or of learning, as it cannot be much abused by 
the privileged, so should it not be wrought upon, flat- 
tered, and cajoled by ambitious declaimers. 

There is a ripened condition of the faculties, there is 
a state of plenary consciousness toward the things, the 
persons, the events of past time, which is the fruit of 
high culture and of life-long habits. This consciousness, 
this mental existence, carried back into the heart of 
antiquity, supersedes what, in a logical sense, may be 
required in the way of Evidences and Proofs. 

A man sits surrounded with the books of all ages : 
among these he has passed the best years of his life. 
He has gone in and out among them: through their 
very substance he has made a path for himself, in the 
course of methodical study; and with these he has con- 
versed, discursively, as accident might lead him. Now 
we may imagine these his companions to be set out in 
chronological perspective on his tables and carpet, right 
and left, each ascending to its date. Thus placed, they 


yy THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


are so many candles lit, shedding their beams over the 
expanse of centuries, up to the remotest eras. Many 
deep shadows still rest upon spots and spaces of this 
landscape; nevertheless, wherever thelight does fall, the 
outlines of things are perfectly defined, and the colours 
are bright. 

Besides, as the books are phosphorescent in the view 
of their possessor, so are the multifarious contents of 
the cabinets around him: so are the antique busts that 
occupy the brackets: and, “as face answereth to face 
in a glass,” so do the visages and the legends of me- 
dallions and of sculptures answer to, interpret, and sus- 
tain the pages of the historians, poets, and philosophers, 
of the corresponding times. Taken altogether, or con- 
sidered in their aggregate effect, these accumulated ma- 
terials give a familiarity and an assurance to the historic 
consciousness which does not rate lower than does the 
feeling as to any class of objects that are not actually 
present to the senses. 

Yet how much of this feeling will it be possible for 
this same man of culture to impart to one whose educa- 
tion has been elementary only? Not a thousandth part 
of it; and if the recipient of such a communication, 
along with an ordinary measure of native intelligence, 
brings with him a smack of conceit; if, in his case, ig- 
norance, instead of being simply negative, has gone into 
the positive form of a shrewd scepticism, then the bring- 
ing forward of book-evidence and of antiquarian cor- 
roborations may be found to have produced the very 
contrary of their proper effect. This man, who is one 
‘not soon imposed upon,” had come forward apprehen- 
sive that he should perhaps be robbed by force of his 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. ak 


disbelief: instead of this, he has seen and heard 
nothing that he has really understood; and he departs 
with his reason confused, and his vanity entire. 

What then is the inference hence resulting? It is 
just this—that, knowing these things, the well-informed, 
t 2 honestly-intending, the seriously-minded, will scorn 
t e easy triumph of trampling in the dust the Religious 
Belief of the people—the uneducated and the half- 
educated. 

Do I say this because I inwardly mistrust my argu- 
ment, and shrink from the light, and foresee what must 
be the issue of an open discussion? I shall show you 
that any such surmise as this, on your part, if you en- 
tertain it, is wholly unfounded. What I shrink from is 
not light, but darkness; what I am afraid of is not the 
brightness of day and the fresh breezes of the upper 
skies ;—what I am afraid of is that choke-damp of po- 
pular ignorance, into which the assailants of Religious 
Belief shall not tempt me to descend in pursuit of 
them. 

Besides, to follow severally, those who of late have 
assailed the Christian Belief of the people, in the way of 
reply, would be, on our part, to descend from our true 
position, and implicitly give way to an utterly false 
idea of Christianity itself. We should thus come to 
think of it as a something artificial and fragile, which 
the bringing forward of objections, difficulties, flaws on 
its surface, this and that, ten, twenty, a hundred doubts, 
might and must destroy. We should then feel as if 
Christianity were a casting of that sort (as founders 
say) in which there is such a condition of internal ten- 
sion by unequal cooling—such a strain upon the interior 


24 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


coherence of particles, that, if you do but scratch the 
surface with a nail, or break off a corner, the whole flies 
into atoms. . 

This is very much the feeling with which one rises 
from the perusal, not merely of books written to im- 
pugn Christianity, but often of books written to defend 
it. This idea of the matter in hand is, I say, wholly a 
mistaken notion. The anxiety that springs from it, and 
which disturbs so much the minds of those who do be- 
lieve, or who would fain continue so to do, is quite 
groundless; under the influence of it one says, in a 
desponding tone, What if this or that difficulty cannot 
be cleared up? And then there are twenty more in 
reserve! How can we hope to cut our way out from 
among this jungle of thorns? 

It is a very commendable labour with which those 
charge themselves, who sit down to meet and obviate 
objections, seréatém, to reconcile inconsistencies, real or 
apparent, to harmonize discrepant narratives, and to 
draw the line close around a difficulty, reducing it to its 
minimum of importance. All this should be done ; but 
it is better done in books devoted to philological and his- 
torical criticism, and in which questions are treated ac- 
cording to their abstract merits and their real import, 
apart from any allusion to what is flippant or disin- 
genuous in the writing of declared opponents. But as 
to Christianity itself, those who think that it is to be 
brought into doubt, or that it will be exposed to peril 
by means of cavils 7x detail, or even by the allegation 
of difficulties that defy solution, such persons, whether 
notions of this sort inspire them with hopes of a tri- 
umph for infidelity, or depress them with fear as be- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF, 25 


lievers, can never have apprehended what this Gospel is 
in itself, what it intends, how it stands related to 
human nature, or the well-being of nations, to the desti- 
nies of the human family. Such persons, whether they 
be overweening disbelievers, or timid and mistrusting 
believers, are burrowing hither and thither under the 
sward, unconscious of what is seen and felt in the open 
world. . 

No problem, historical or critical, presenting itself 
for solution, should be negligently dealt with, or timidly 
evaded; much less disingenuously smothered or con- 
jured out of the way. Difficulties and objections thus 
disposed of, are so much gunpowder, stowed away by 
our own hands, beneath the foundations of the house 
we live in. 

What I propose to do in the following pages is not to 
wrestle with gainsayers, sincere or insincere, on low 
levels, nor to tread anew a ground that has already 
been trodden hard. Work of this sort has been well 
done; and no one who, ina spirit of industry and ho- 
nesty, would inform himself concerning the ‘“ Evidences 
of Christianity,’ the “authenticity and genuineness 
of the Gospels and Hpistles,” or any kindred subjects, 
need be at a loss in finding books, learnedly and con- 
clusively written, where he may meet with more than 
enough of proof and argument to satisfy every seri- 
ously-minded and educated reader. 

Nevertheless it is true that such readers do rise from 
the perusal of these books, confusedly convinced, and 
not fairly or finally rid of their misgivings. It is to 
them as if Infidelity had been mortally wounded, and 
lay at their feet as dead; but the carcase has not been 


3 


26 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF 


removed or buried out of their sight, and they eye it 
with dread, as expecting its resurrection. They have 
concerned themselves with negations ; they have car- 
ried their eye too close to the object before them: they 
have failed to come into correspondence with what is 
POSITEVE in the Gospel: they have lost, or not yet ac- 
quired, sympathy with that in it which, to those who 
occupy a better position, is seen to be great, is felt to 
be true, is found to be real. 

So far as at this time a Restoration of Belief may 
be looked for as probable, either in single instances, or 
as to the community, it will be brought about, not by 
conflict or compromise with negations or exceptions, not 
by forcing a path through the briars of doubt; but by 
pushing our way straightforward toward the POSITIVE, 
and by apprehending, so far as the finite may do it, the 
INFINITE. 


ENGLAND THE FITTEST ARENA FOR THE CHRISTIAN 
ARGUMENT. 


A RESTORATION of BELIEF, whether we think of it as 
an argumentative and logical process, or as a change 
produced by means that are suasive and moral, demands 
conditions such as shall be thereto favourable. At this 
present moment it is in this country, and nowhere else 
throughout the civilized world, that these requisites are 
to be found in full measure. It is within the circuit of 
the British islands that every reasonable exception 
against the conclusiveness of an argument concerning 
Christianity is shut out—even to the shadow of a pre- 
text, as if a fair hearing of the adverse part had not 
been allowed. 

Some things touching our condition as a Christian 
people, which may seem, and which indeed are, anoma- 
lous, and which, under certain of their aspects, give us 
much uneasiness, do most decisively favour any endea- 
vour that may be made to win back to Christianity 
those among us who may have lapsed into unbelief. | 

It is easy to narrow the area, geographically, within 
which an argument, such as the one before us, could be 
carried forward to any good purpose. Might we claim 
a fifth, or even a seventh part of Christendom as af- 
fording open ground for our purpose? I think not. 
Throughout Christendom, that is to say, wherever there 
has survived any knowledge of the Gospel, wherever a 
glimmer of the light of heaven still shines, there, in 


(27) 


28 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


corners and recesses, might be found solitaries, or per- 
haps sincere men enough, in a cluster, to make up a 
Church in Tertullian’s sense, Ubi tres, ibi Ecclesia. 
But these exceptive cases, precious as they are in the 
sight of Heaven, can be of no account as to our im- 
mediate purpose. We are not attempting to number 
the Faithful among the living; but are in search of a 
field that is adapted to movements on a large scale. 

In relation to any such purpose, no place can we as- 
sign, In our geography of Christianity, to nations, 
called Christian, that, in fact, have no liberty, if they 
were so inclined, to profess themselves otherwise. Nor 
any place can we grant in our atlas toa people who 
have not actually in their hands, generally, and who 
from habit and feeling have not become, individually, 
conversant with THE BOOK, concerning the authority of 
which an argument is to be had. Even those who assail 
this authority must profess to wish that the “public” 
they appeal to may be competent to assent, as from its 
own knowledge, to the allegations, derogatory to the 
credit of the Scriptures which they bring forward. 
Certainly we, on our side, should choose our hearers 
and readers from among those who “search the Serip- 
tures daily,” and who, in a manner, know them by 
heart. 

Thus it is then that our line must be so drawn in, as 
that it shall include none but the Teutonic branches of 
the European family. And even as to these, we must 
still make exceptions :—we must make exceptions until, 
to say the truth at once, it will amount to this—that, 
in the fullest sense of the word, it is the English people 
alone, alone in the old world, that is now Christian, 


ee ee 


fp os, X- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 29 


Let me exempt myself from the imputation of indulg- 
ing illiberal prejudices when I so broadly speak. 

One might almost say that, just now, the British 
people stands among the nations as the surviving Trus- 
tee of Christianity, or as the Residuary Legatee of its 
benefits. 

Let those who reject Christianity make what use they 
please of this admission, and get from it all the infer- 
ential aid which it»may afford them. The fact, if it 
can be serviceable on that side, is theirs. But the 
genuine inference, thence deduceable, I take to be 
available on my side, with a tenfold weight of meaning. 

This fact has two aspects; or we might blend the 
two in one conclusion. It may be affirmed first, that 
Christianity, considered as a system of religious and 
moral principles, is of such a nature that it will be sure 
to find its way toward that one community, within the 
circle of civilization, which, by national temperament, 
is the most energetic, which the most instinctively em- 
braces doctrines that are seen to be practically good, 
which makes its elections, in matters of opinion, with 
the most absolute freedom, a freedom uncontrollably 
impatient of restraint or interference. Christianity 
chooses for itself a people preeminently spontaneous in 
all its doings; self-governing, and in an equal degree 
loving order; abhorrent of despotism; unknowing in 
disguises; and silent or acquiescent, much rather from 
a sullen consciousness of. individual independence, than 
from servility or fear. Such is the people (as compared 
with others) to the hearth of which Christ’s religion 
has at length drawn itself, as if retiring to its own 
home. Among such a people, when hunted from all 

Bx 


30 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


other lands, has this religion been welcomed, and has 
found its asylum. 

But looking at the same facts in their other aspect, 
we should be free to think of Christianity as that plastic 
power which, in the course of many centuries, and es- 
pecially during the last three, has itself made the peo- 
ple what they are. It is the Gospel that has wrought 
itself into the national temper, and has moulded us so 
much to its own fashion. It is the Gospel which has 
planted in our bosoms that sense of individuality, that 
seriousness of conviction, which despotism dreads, and 
can never crush. It is this deep belief, and this sense 
of the authority of truth, which has come to be a na- 
tional characteristic, and which is the ultimate guaran- 
tee of our liberties, religious and political. It is this 
Gospel that has given us our higher tone of domestic 
virtue, our relish for home, our home-bred feelings, and 
our true idea of personal delicacy, and our sense of in- 
dividual importance, consistently with individual mo- 
desty. It is thence, and from the vernacular diffusion, 
and the daily usage and hearing of the Scriptures, that 
we have drawn the power and point, the simplicity and 


the majesty, the tropical richness, the rhetoric opu- 


lence, and the fervour of our conversational style, and 
public oratory. 

Combine what is proper to each of these aspects of 
the same facts, and then the result, expressed in a 
word, is this—that Christianity, in its migrations 
through eighteen centuries, has betaken itself to the 
BritisH Propux, as if these were its own, and that 
these, under its influence, and at its inspiration, have 
become such as they are—if not the most highly 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. $1 


educated among the nations, yet the most effective, 
the most beneficent, the most humane, and the people 
to whose purposes and labours the world looks for 
whatever is good and hopeful. 

For a reason I shall presently mention, it is not 
even among our brethren and sons of the United 
States that a conclusive course of argument, touching 
Christianity, could be carried forward in a manner 
exempt from reasonable exceptions. 

THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT does indeed demand 
liberty as its indispensable condition; but it is not a 
vague or unemphatic liberty that will suffice. It is 
not mere freedom to breathe and to speak, such as 
you may find on the table lands of central Asia, or 
in the midst of the Sahara; but the earnest-minded 
and force-fraught liberty, the freedom positive which 
one is conscious of enjoying in the dense centre of a 
people whose minds (unshackled in every sense of 
the word) are headed up by solid embankments, by 
INSTITUTIONS: it is that liberty which gives a strong 
pulse to the energies of men, individually and socially » 
it is the liberty of men who, as individuals, and as 
bodies, or as classes, differ from each other resolutely, 
who oppose each other pertinaciously, and who contend 
for their opinions, as for their prerogatives, with a 
vehemence stopping short only at the border beyond 
which the rights and properties of others would be 
invaded. 

What we need for carrying forward an unexcep- 
tionable argument in defence of Christianity is, the 
consciousness in every man’s feeling, not merely that 
without rebuke, he may become as wise as he can, and 


82 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


may profess and teach what he thinks to be true and 
good; but more than this, that he may humour himself 
among his crotchets, and be as absurd as he pleases; 
that he may proclaim his whim, whatever it be, and 
endow it too, and spend upon it his fortune and his 
children’s inheritance. Within a community empha- 
tically free, every thing may be said, done, and 
practised, which does not, in an overt manner, inflict 
damage upon others: and then all such things may be 
assailed, rebuked, and put to shame with equal 
freedom. | 

If we are to pursue our course in a promising 
manner, and if indeed we may hope to reach a con- 
clusion, not afterwards to be rejected as_ precipitate, 
we must not betake ourselves to countries where the 
people are told that the liberty they enjoy is that 
of choosing whether they will be reduced to the 
mummy state, after this fashion or that, when the 
immortal soul has been pressed out of the animal 
man by despotism. Nor will it be enough for us to 
know that, albeit intelligible questions concerning 
existing institutions are straitly prohibited, the wilds 
of abstruse speculation are free land; that the back- 
woods of philosophy have not been parcelled out, and 
that “Government” maintains no police in the Sheol 
of Universal Disbelief. Among the Teutonic nations 
of Continental Europe, can we think it likely that the 
Christian argument will be carried forward toward a 
determinate issue ? 

We, that is to say the English on this side the 
Atlantic, hold a decisive advantage, even in comparison 
with our brethren in the United States. Grant it that 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 33 


their liberty is much like our own; and they may 
think it more entire than ours; or at least that it is 
more theoretically consistent: so it may be; but on 
that very account it is of less value than our own ; 
and it produces a less marked impression upon the 
national mind: if it shows a wider surface, 1t embraces 
less of deep purpose, and it is less resolute. No Code- 
making, no legislation according to theory, or in re- 
spect of the principles of “‘abstract justice,’ will give 
a people that which our Azstory has given ourselves: 
our social condition is the giant-lmbed offspring of 
the many struggles we have passed through. If the 
American liberties are also the fruits of events, these 
have gone into theory: with us they have issued in 
the creation of those beneficial anomalies which no 
theory would every allow; but which, in the working 
of a constitutional system, are far more serviceable 
to a people than any thing which men sit down to 
contrive for themselves. Antagonisms come, they are 
never called for. Anomalies confront us unbidden; 
they perplex us; we quarrel with them: but against 
our consent, they secure to us the very highest advan- 
tages. So is it especially in whatever touches the 
ecclesiastical framework under which we live and act. 
One of these benefits, and the one we have just 
now to make proof of, is this, that the Christianity 
of the British people stands exempt from all suspicion 
of combination among its adherents: so planted are 
we in companies on the flanks of Hbal and Gerizim, 
that a damage to the one cause which sincerely we all 
wish to uphold, arising from our dissensions, is an 


384 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


event far more probable than the bringing in of any 
advantage, from our concert, and collusion. | 

‘As to the Old World, and forgetting the New, 
the question of Christianity is almost an insular ques- 
tion—it is a British interest. How far, or whether 
in any perceptible manner, the moral or political con- 
dition of any one of the Continental states would show 
a change, it is not easy to conjecture, supposing a 
silent and somewhat gradual dying out of religious 
belief, that is Christian belief, from the mind of the 
people, and from the lip of the state. But there can 
be no room for any such doubt as to ourselves. What 
those various consequences to ourselves might be, re- 
sulting from a national abandonment of our present 
faith in the Divine origin of the Bible, and of our 
professed submission to its authority, this is not the 
place to enquire; yet there is reason to think that such 
an apostacy would mean—national annihilation. ; 

Whether it might be so or not, it is certain that 
Christianity has always shown itself to be MIGRATORY: 
it abides with a people for a century, or for a thousand 
years, but it does not chain itself to a soil, as with 
bands of brass. 

Hitherto no combinations of adverse forces,—neither 
persecutions from without, nor perversions from within, 
—nor deluges of barbarism, have availed to dislodge 
Christianity from the world. Yet unobtrusive causes 
have often driven it from countries. Fixing the eye 
upon any one spot, and thence to watch the waxing 
and waning of the light of the Gospel, one might 
think it a terrestrial phosphorescence, rather than a 
luminary of heaven. It shines upon a land to-day ; 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 3D 


to-morrow these beams may have drawn themselves 
up to their source ! 

This readiness to depart—this word always upon 
its lip, wevaBatvouer évvevoer, Which Seems to be its law, 
as to cities and countries—doves it not repeat itself in 
individual instances every day? ‘The religious his- 
tory (for example) of the once Christian cities of the 
Kast, is a narrative, at large, of what is written, 
small, in the personal history of many around us— 
perhaps in our own. In the fresh season of life 
Christianity lodged itself firmly in a man’s affections, 
and in his reason too; so far as the reason was then 
developed. Within the chamber of conscience the 
ethics of the Scriptures was always listened to as the 
ultimate authority: never did it seem doubtful that 
this rule of virtue, listened to and obeyed, would lead 
in the path of rectitude and of purity, and would 
issue in the highest good. But the realities of ma- 
ture life, and its seduction, came upon the neophyte: 
they came with their struggles, their moral ambiguities, 
their over-wrought requirements, their blandishments. 
A hubbub of contending impulses came to fill the 
chamber wherein, formerly, Conscience and Christianity 
used to confer in so consentient a tone that the two 
voices fell upon the ear as one sweet sound. se 

Thenceforward Christianity betook itself to a lodge- 
ment remote from this place of noise—the mature 
man’s brain. When so lodged at a distance, it came 
to be regarded as a Personage whose merits might 
be weighed, whose claims were open to enquiry, and 
who might be brought to terms along with other 
rival authorities: perhaps its demands were scouted 


x 


36 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


as excessive and impracticable. Every day the aerial 
perspective intervening between this departing Power 
and the busy man, gave him more and more advantage 
over it, as an Authority. 

Then came on the detractors of Christianity—a 
motley crew: these detractors were sinister in look, 
and, manifestly, they were intent upon rending, and 
tearing, and treading in the mire, whatever might be 
abandoned to their will: this was their hour; and there 
came up with them one in the garb of a sage, who, in 
an attempered tone, and as if he governed a secret pur- 
pose, whispered such things tothe prejudice of the Re- 
ligion of the man’s youth, as could not but be listened 
to: he said, “It is due to myself, it is due even to 
Christianity, if Iam again to admit it to my confidence, 
to give these reasonable allegations a patient hearing ; 
I will do so when leisure permits.” Leisure did not 
come to this man at his call; but it came in its own 
way; and during its stay the question of Christianity 
was considered anew, and did obtain a patient hearing ; 
and in the full exercise of mature reason, aided by the . 
experience of years, it did make good its hitherto un- 
examined claims. It re-entered the chamber of con- 
science; it rekindled the extinct affections; it became 
the spring of energies, and the fountain of hope. 

Such, in this instance, was the actual issue: but how 
easily might it have been otherwise! A train of events, 
seemingly casual, taking their course in another direc- 
tion, and then this man would have gone on to the end, 
as his companions in active life have gone. In their 
company, whatever was not palpable, was as a dream, 
to the bodings of which it would be inane to pay re- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 37 


gard. In the hurry of many interests Christianity, 
and with it every definite forethought of a future life, 
may pass out of sight and be lost for ever; just as a 
man may quit his hold of the arm of a friend in a 
crowded street, and see him thenceforward no more. 

What may happen to the man, and does happen to 
thousands, may happen to communities—if not with so 
little observation, or within the brief term of two de- 
cades, yet within the limits of the years that measure 
out a generation. Regular habits, a discreet silence, 
and churchgoing, will carry the individual man ostensi- 
bly well through a period of religious syncope; and so 
its ancient INSTITUTIONS, and its usages, and its con- 
ventional proprieties, may avail to bear a people on- 
ward some way beyond the point at which their religious 
professions cease to be genuine, and are formal simply. 
Yet such a hollowness as this can have only a limited 
time allowed it. What a people has indeed become, 
will declare itself at some moment when an unlooked- 
for turn in its affairs gives an involuntary utterance to 
its inner thoughts. 

Immeasurably far from any such hollow condition as 
this, is the English Christianity of this present time. 
If certain classes are Jess loyal in their religious 
attachments than lately they were, other classes have 
become more so. A genuine religious feeling is deep- 
ening on the one hand, if it be fading away on the 
other. Yet it is certain that, during the last few years, 
a progress towards Disbelief has become a marked 
feature in literature and society. If the Press did 
not make this certain, every one who listens to the 
accidental utterances of men’s feelings, must well know 


4 


38 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


it to be the fact. Such a tendency is a gravitation, the 
property of which is to accelerate itself at a rapid rate. 
The English people are not disbelievers; but they may 
become such soon, unless a better direction be given at 
once to the mind of the educated classes. 

No one whose habit of mind it is to pay regard to 
that which affects the community, can refrain from thus 
considering the Christian question in its bearing upon 
our national welfare. So it must be, if one cares for 
England, and thinks of the position which it occupies 
among the nations, as the only free and religious 
country of the Old World ;—the only country in which 
a renewed profession of adherence to Christianity could 
be thought to have much argumentative value. 

And yet although at starting I advert to facts of this 
general sort, half political as they are, it 1s not as 
related to national interests, nor as a secular question, 
that we are now to enter upon a subject so deep, and 
which touches the peace and the hopes of each one of 
us. But do not be alarmed at the hearing of these 
customary phrases. I am not intending to preach, as 
if to frighten you into Belief. Several reasons would 
forbid my attempting so to do; but this especially— 
that I have to ask you to hold, at my command, your 
REASON. ‘To make you a CHRISTIAN, in the deep sense 
of the term, is not my work; but I hope to shew you 
that you ought to be such; and with this end in view, 
I shall use no means of suasion against which you can 
rightfully except. 

Besides, I shall call upon you to judge between me 
and those overweening writers of the present time, who 
allow themselves great license in speaking of Christians 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 89 


—I mean, of men equal to themselves every way—as 
besotted, blinded by childish prejudices, wanting in 
honesty ; or if not, in understanding; and who deal 
always in ‘‘miserable shifts,” ‘paltry evasions,” and 
‘unworthy subterfuges.” I think I see at the impulse 
of what motives these unseemly imputations have been 
so plentifully strewed over the pages of some recent 
books. We Christians must be fools or knaves, for the 
ease and comfort of those who reject Christianity. Be 
it so. 

Yet I will say this to yourself. When you find me 
faulty in any such manner, when you see that I am 
inwardly trembling in the consciousness of difficulties I 
dare not name, and cannot dispose of, when you find 
that I have recourse to any of these alleged “ shifts,” 
““evasions,” “subterfuges,”” when I cease to satisfy 
you as thoroughly ingenuous, straightforward, and up- 
right in argument, then lay these pages aside. 


RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE ROMAN WORLD IN THE 
TIME OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 


Tur thirteen years during which ALEXANDER SE- 
VERUS held the empire of the world, from the Euphrates 
to the Atlantic, and from the sands of the African 
desert to the Baltic, afford a good resting place where- 
upon we may establish ourselves at ease, and look 
around us. On this platform we may both of us -dis- 
miss all alarms—you as a philosopher, and I as a 
Christian; for the young man in whose hand is our 
life is mild in temper; and though firm, he is just and 
reasonable. He is such, on the whole, as one should 
wish the master of mankind to be. For the philoso- 
pher, he cares little; he is not jealous of you, like a 
Domitian: he is a man of affairs, although also a man 
of mind; and he knows that, think what you may, you 
have not courage either to act or to suffer so as to give 
him any trouble. Toward me he has some uneasy 
thoughts; nevertheless he will not be induced, even by 
reasonable apprehensions of danger to the Roman 
State, to do violence to the spirit of Roman:law; al- 
though its letter might warrant his taking that course: 
he will not hurt, much less attempt to exterminate, good 
citizens whose only fault is a strange pertinacity in the 
matter of their superstition. ALEXANDER SEVERUS 
was not a mindless despot; therefore the philosopher 
is safe while he lives: and as he was not a Marcus 
AURELIUS, the Christian may freely breathe. Besides, 

(40) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 41 


this Emperor—no softling himself—is not ashamed to 
take counsel of his mother; and she, although indis- 
creetly frugal, is a wise woman, who, having trained her 
son for empire, took care to screen him from the vices 
of the times, and to hold off not merely the corruption 
that would have enfeebled his youth, but the fanaticism 
that might have inflamed his ripening manhood. It is 
even suspected that Mammea, either in Syria or at 
Rome, had come to know so much of the now-spread- 
ing religion, as to forbid her allowing it to be cruelly 
trampled on. If it be so, she is not the first imperial 
lady who has gleaned in the fields of the Church to its 
advantage and her own. 

We take our stand then on this resting-place,.as a 
place of observation, whence the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them are visible, and may with advan- 
tage be contemplated. Hence we may look up the 
stream of time, through the hundred years that is occu- 
pied by Commopus, M. Auretius, ANTONINUS PIUvs, 
and TRAJAN. 

As related to the purpose which I have now in view, 
this position has a definite advantage, which we must not 
lose sight of. Outspread before us is a wide field—the 
world in fact, so far as history knows much of those 
times; and as to the evidence thereto relating, it is 
voluminous. The folios and the quartos of that period, 
and those which serve to attest its principal facts, cover 
a library-table. It cannot therefore be pretended that 
I am leading the way into a dim region—the land (in a 
literary sense) of the shadow of death, scarcely shone 
upon by here and there a glimmering lamp. 

In the mass of materials under our hand, some things 

Ax 


42? THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


are worthless, much is not available for any argumenta- 
tive purpose; some portions are of doubtful authority, 
some things are undoubtedly spurious. Yet all these 
deductions, or if they were more than they are, fall 
very far short of amounting to what might touch any 
conclusion I am intending to draw from my evidence. 
I am driven to no necessity to fight a hard battle for a 
single treatise or book, like Boyle against Bentley; or 
to number and weigh ancient manuscripts in support of 
a doubtful reading. Safe from all reasonable exception, 
are the materials on my table, as to any use I am in- 
tending to make of them. 

Besides the copiousness of these materials, there is 
this peculiar circumstance attaching to them, taken just 
at the moment at which I have chosen to make a stand: 
it is this, that the mass combines the two unamaiga- 
mated and adverse elements, on the one side, the poly- 
theistic and philosophic ; on the other side the Christian. 
The literature of the gods, and of the philosophy which 
threw its handful of incense upon their altars in con- 
tempt, had not yet died away; nor had it been infringed 
upon, or curtailed, or put in fear: its own decrepitude 
was its only disparagement. 

Then, on the Christian side, no favour which it had 
not dearly purchased, or did not well deserve, had as 
yet been shown the new religion: it was not yet a reli- 
gro lictta: it drew its breath in suspense from day to 
day, and it hung upon the personal dispositions of pro- 
consuls, or the temper and politics of the Csesar for the 
time. ‘The Christian literature of the era before us al- 
ternately fires up with the courage of conscious truth, or 
flickers as in the gust of adversity. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 48 


But now what was this Roman world, in the forefront 
of which I am intending to bring in, artist-like, and 
with every possible advantage, the CuristraANiTy I am 
pleading for? 

It is natural that you should imagine me setting to 
- work with an ample canvass before me, and mixing the 
colors most proper for my background, with a knowing 
thought of the effect that is to be produced by the pic- 
ture. Shall I not have in readiness the lurid reds, the 
cloudy purples, with store of the deepest blacks? shall 
I not spread a Rembrandt palette for the depths of that 
canvass, the centre of which is destined for saints, for 
confessors, and for a choir of cherubs ? 

I am going to work in no such manner. It is not 
merely for the sake of having at my command abun- 
dance of evidence, that I take my position at the point 
of time [ have named; but because I wish to have to 
do with nothing that is not unquestionably real. On 
my own side I expect to find none but real men; 
many of them good and true, whose motives and prin- 
ciples of conduct I can understand, whose failings need 
not be cloaked, whose errors give me no alarm; whose 
follies, if any, do not put my argument in peril; whose 
wisdom and virtue I shall know how to interpret, and 
assign to its source. J am not in quest either of super- 
human men, or of angels, walking the earth. I know 
I shall find a superhuman religion—I know I shall come 
upon the footsteps of God. ; 

On the other side, there can be no motive inclining 
me to blacken heathenism forthe sake of a contrast. 
On the contrary, I had much rather show Christianity 
shining bright upon a moderately illumined surface, 


44 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


than made to appear artificially resplendent by setting 
it upon a ground of the deepest shades. 

We are sometimes told—‘ If you would know what 
heathenism is, and understand what it was which the 
Gospel had to contend with, and which it vanquished, 
go to India, and there look about you;—heathenism is 
the Devil’s religion, and therefore always the same, 
though it may show a different face in different coun- 
tries.’ No, I think not. Whatever polytheism may 
be, as to its inner nature, as the Devil’s religion—and 
I think it is so—yet among one family of man it may 
coexist with influences, alien to itself, which may so 
attemper it, so amend and correct it, so forbid its worst 
enormities, as that, when compared with its unmixed 
condition, as developed among other families, the 
resemblance of the two is partial only; and we shall 
find ourselves torn with thorns if we rush forward into 
argument, assuming that the gods are the gods, meet 
them where we may. 

Christianity, while as yet it was in its purity, made 
inroads upon the grounds of Buddhism and Brahminism ; 
but it failed to overturn either; it did not even exten- 
sively colonize India; it did but breathe there. Those 
‘‘idolatries’’ presented to it no attempered elements, 
whence its assault upon human nature might draw an 
initial advantage. 

As a Christian, had one not rather find it to bea 
fact that the Gospel sickened and died upon the pesti- 
lential swamps of India—those plains sodden with 
human blood, and abominable even still more for the 
practices of the living; while it lived and spread in the 
soil which Greek poetry had planted out as a garden, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 45 


upon which Plato had built his palaces of thought, and 
Aristotle his logical fortresses? The Polytheism, or 
call it the ‘“‘heathenism,” which the Gospel dzd sup- 
plant, was that religion, under the shade of which Epic- 
tetus had fashioned his scheme of virtue; it was the 
religion under which Plutarch and Seneca had digested 
so well the past, and had mused of better things to 
come; it was the religion in conforming to which Ro- 
man emperors, unresisted despots as they were, had 
ruled the world with justice, mercy, and truth, and had 
learned to govern, more than the Imperium Romanum, 
their own passions. Yet for this paganism Christianity 
proved itself an overmatch: but I must not outrun my 
argument. 

From the platform whereon we stand one might be 
tempted to look around upon the gorgeous spectacle 
that presents itself on every side. We are used to think 
of the times of Hadrian and Alexander Severus, as 
degenerate; because they stand, toward us of modern 
times, in optical conjunction with the Augustan age: 
and again we see them laden with the ruin and disaster, 
the decay and the barbarism, of an after time, the 
blame of which we throw upon the men of this middle 
period. | 

Putting away these illusions of position—these errors 
in perspective—the prospect before us is such as at no 
other point of time, either much earlier or much later, 
this earth of ours has presented. The Roman land- 
scape, contemplated at any moment during the reigns 
of the benignant emperors, beginning with Trajan, has 
not had its parallel—if the West and the Hast are 
thought of together—in any other period Certainly 


46 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the same area of three thousand miles by two thousand, 
now shows a falling off in almost every item of estima- 
tion—population, material wealth, breadth of fully cul- 
tivated surface, the number and splendour of cities, and 
the magnitude and utility of those public works, which 
at once were the praise of the central government, and 
the means of sustaining its power. 

The East, and the West, and Arrica, taken into 
the reckoning together, the world that now is, the great 
field over which our summer tourists are wandering, 
does not seem to have gained much upon the world, such 
as it was in the age of the Antonines. What is cer- 
tain is this—That, in relation to the mighty revolution 
which in that age was advancing towards its crisis, the 
human family (so far as it is authentically reported of 
it by continuous and intelligible history) had never be- 
fore, and has never since, so presented itself to a plastic 
hand to be moulded anew, as then it did. That was the 
epoch which might most fairly have been fixed upon, as 
proper for making a new experiment upon humanity, 
which should be decisive upon its issue. 

The full-developed and educated minp of the human 
family was then to be found clustering, at bright 
centres, and thence diffused over surfaces, between and 
within the boundaries of the Roman Empire. Among 
the cultured nations of this area, afid no where else, 
THOUGHT took its wayward flight; and on no side did 
it come up to adamantine barriers; its own power of 
wing being its only limit. Into all regions of specula- 
tion a way had been freely opened. The Roman roads, 
centering at Rome, and running out, as if contemptuous 
of the rugged surface, right away into and through the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 47 


gloom of primeval forests, did but symbolize those 
beaten ways which Philosophy had opened for herself 
and for her sons, outward, from the home amenities of 
Poetry and Rhetoric, toward the dark unknown of 
abstruse speculation. 

The human mind in that age had indeed ceased to be 
creative: the men of earlier times had wrought up the 
material of the fine arts and of poetry, and had occu- 
pied the ground on every side. The nations, using the 
language of Greece and Rome, were living deliciously 
upon the intellectual products of an age of more en- 
ergy. ‘The human mind did not any longer seem 
luminous, as if from within; but yet its lamp was fed 
from a store of oil which apparently was inexhaustible. 

At no one time in the world’s history has erudite intelli- 
gence been spread over so large a surface, geographically, 
or had come, as one body of philosophy and literature, 
into the keeping of so large a number of persons, as at 
the time whereat we have now made a pause. Take an 
earlier age, and then the Wrst was redeemed from 
barbarism only at points: or take a much later time, and 
the clouds of a sky, overcast for a thousand years, were 
gathering over the WeEsT and the East: or, if we come 
down to more modern times, the vast regions of the 
Kast, with Africa and Egypt, are a howling wilderness, 
and the habitation of dragons. 

Whence then shall we furnish ourselves with the dark 
colours, by aid of which we are to recommend the 
_ brightness of the Gospel, then making its way towards 
supremacy ? . 

This darkness which is to give us our intended con- 
trast, does not spring from barbarism, or from ignorance, 


48 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


or from intellectual slumber, but from UNIVERSAL IN- 
CERTITUDE, which was the characteristic of the times: 
it is the gloom of that moral dismay which comes upon 
cultured minds, when they abandon in despair the long 
cherished hope of seizing upon truth and certainty—of 
knowing something beside the theorems of Euclid—of 
grasping in the hand a stay immovable. The soul ree!s 
and sickens when it turns hither and thither, vainly 
endeavouring to learn out of what chaos man had sprung, 
and into what abyss his destinies would plunge him. 

T'o disguise this despair, or to divert it, the levities 
of literature, and the endless inanities of criticism had 
been resorted to. For choking it, Stoicism was the 
means employed. Yet, and notwithstanding the efforts 
of elaborate frivolity on the one part, and of a death- 
like doctrine on the other, the comfortless dismay of the 
human mind, hopeless of Truth, uttered itself in a moan, 
a low wailing, of which we may catch the echoes at what- 
ever point we listen to the voice of that age. 

Let any one whose course has not been altogether 
sensual, or merely busy, but who has known what are 
called ‘exercises of mind,” go back to those moments 
of his life when convictions, beliefs, persuasions of every 
kind, were passing from his view, and when nothing 
remained to him but a dread uncertainty, and the feel- 
ing that never again should he grasp a truth. In the 
recollection of such a season one would not reject the 
figure as inappropriate, if it were called the night-time 
of the soul; and not less so, although all the splendours 
of literature and science were then glittering around 
him. It must be so: for the first necessity of man’s 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 49 


higher nature is TRUTH, and the despair of finding it is 
indeed—a darkness that may be felt. 

In this very sense of the word, a thick darkness rested 
upon the cultured members of the human family (of the 
Roman empire) at the time which we have chosen for 
our survey. From the time when the genius of the 
Greek and Roman literature had departed, that darkness 
had sensibly gathered blackness; for in fact, as it is 
the very property of Genius, and its first characteristic, 
to speak and behave itself as being in the conscious 
possession of whatever it touches, and as it is its pre- 
rogative to give illusions the aspect of reality, therefore, 
so long as this spontaneous power lives among a people 
they may believe that Truth is still extant, somewhere, 
because its tones are still heard. 

in this definitely explained sense of the term, then, I 
am warranted in affirming that, thinking of the polythe- 
istic and philosophic majority of the people, throughout 
the circuit of Roman civilization, a deep gloom at this 
time covered the nations, and that the people sat as ‘in 
the shadow of Death.’’ It would be easy to make good 
other allegations, tending to show that this gloom was 
darkened by the evergrowing corruption of morals, by 
the utter decay of public spirit, by the dissoluteness 
which despotism encourages, and by that deprivation 
of the humane emotions which came from the frequency 
and the sanguinary atrocity of the exhibitions of the 
amphitheatre. But from all this we may abstain; for it 
does not materially affect the argument. , 

Grant me this, that, as to the Life of the Soul, as to 
that brightness of assured belief toward which human 
nature tends with so strong an instinct and so earnest a 


5) 


50 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


craving, it was a season of dimness, and of more than 
dimness ; it was the most gloomy season in the history 
of mankind, for all shadows were then lengthening and 
spreading ; and a chill was in the atmosphere, forebod- 
ing a wintry night at hand. 

Throughout all the countries whereupon the once fes- 
tive polytheism of Greece had built its altars, mockery 
had supplanted religious awe, a factitious fanaticism 
had come in the place, both of gay observances and of 
serious feeling. Philosophy had uttered her last pro- 
mises, and broken them. On no side did light break 
forth. 

From a worldly point of view we have just now looked 
abroad upon the kingdoms of the Roman earth, and 
imagined their glory. But now, shutting out that mun- 
dane glare, what we see is a thick cloud, overshadowing 
the prospect, even from the rising of the sun to the 
going down of the same. 

Yet all is not dark. If we pass down the Mediterra- 
nean, from the Pillars of Hercules, and look to the 
right and to the left, and carry the eye inland too, as 
far as to the furthest barriers of the Empire, the 
whole of the coast-line on both sides throughout this 
voyage, and every headland, and every mountain range 
more remote, and every temple-crowned acropolis, and 
every lofty front glows as if the sun were rising. A 
Light has already arisen upon the nations; a promise 
of Truth, and an assurance as to the destiny of man, 
has brightened the gloom. | ¢ 

Every where—the exceptions are few—throughout 
the regions which the Mediterranean divides, in cities 
and in fields, we meet companies of men, even multi- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 51 


tudes, who have thrown off the listlessness of scepticism, 
from whose countenance the sullenness of atheism has 
been dispelled, and who speak to us in the decisive 
tones that spring from an accepted and undoubted BE- 
LIEF. ‘These men show, in their animated looks, and 
by the determination of their behaviour, that there is in 
them the vitality of a Religious persuasion which they 
do not distrust. 

How cordially to be welcomed is such a visitation, as 
of the morning—if it be the morning? How good a 
promise was it for mankind of an escape from the gulph 
toward which the human family was slowly and surely 
drifting away! <A sure holding has at length been 
found. Some, nay thousands of the people, declare that 
their feet do touch firm ground in the waters of reli- 
gious opinion, and that they stand where good standing 
is. Instead of those inarticulate babblings, as from the 
frivolous million, and instead of those doleful murmurs 
of the desponding, the ear now catches the intelligible 
utterance of men who say they have come into the pos- 
session of CERTAINTY, and of hope. 

Whether the ground of this confident assurance were 
of that kind which we in this age should think solid and 
sufficient, does not yet appear. It is probable that 
many, or even a large portion of those in that age who 
made this profession, could have given no such reason 
for “‘the hope that was in them,” as would have com- 
pelled*the assent of the men of these times, or such as 
could have endured a ten minutes’ cross-examination In 
the modern forensic style. 

This does not at all concern us now to inquire. The 
FACT is all we have to do with, which fact, briefly stated, 


52 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


is this—That at the time now in prospect, multitudes 
of men, of all the races that were then subject to the . 
Roman sway (and of some other races probably) had 
passed from a condition of frivolous indifference, or of 
sensual obtuseness, or of sullen hopelessness, and had 
come, rightfully or not, into the possession of a bright 
and well-defined belief. 

If we were to set forth this belief in the most concise 
terins possible, it would stand in the form of an affirma- 
tive reply to three questions, which questions are as old 
as the world, and to which men, from the very begin- 
ning, have been seeking, but not finding, an answer. 

“Is there a Supreme Being who cares for man, and 
in whose wisdom and goodness man may confide ?” 

‘Is there an after life and retribution ?” 

‘“Ts there forgiveness of sins with God ?” 

It is not that no solutions, more or less intelligible, 
had been attempted and obtained of these vital prob- 
lems ; for the moral instincts of men had, in some way, 
solved them. Every form of worship had assumed a 
reply to them in the affirmative; and philosophical 
meditation had done its part—ambiguously enough—to 
answer them. Yet, all this while the reply, let it come 
whence it might, carried no peremptory conviction into 
the hearts of those who heard it. It came with no 
weight of authority; it came as a balanced probability 
—it had no attestation. But now at length it has so 
come. The reply—the “yea” which Christianity has 
uttered, takes a thorough hold of men’s inmost souls, as 
well as of their reason. Whether or not this confidence 
of theirs was strictly warrantable, according to our no- 
tions of the laws of evidence, the Fact that they did so 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 53 


believe is beyond all question; and of the strength of 
this their persuasion proofs were given, than which any 
more conclusive cannot be imagined. 

This then is the point we have reached—That, in 
the century which is named from Trajan, Hadrian, and 
the Antonines, the instructed races bordering upon the 
Mediterranean were in a transition state, and were 
passing from darkness to light; that is, the Light of a 
confidently held religious Belief, true or false. 


THE CHRISTIAN BELIEF HAD PERVADED THE ROMAN 
CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRD CENTURY. 


In what next follows, I shall imagine that all we can 
now know about Christianity, as to its origin and its 
earlier period, must be gathered from the literary re- 
mains of the age we have before us. Every thing, 
every book, treatise, memcir, fragment, that might 
have come down to us from a date anterior to the acces- 
sion of Trajan, I will suppose has perished. And even 
as to the books extant, I draw my pen through all the 
citations of the Christian writers of a preceding age 
that appear in them. 

Besides doing this, I dismiss from my recollection 
whatever I may have come to know of the after his- 
tory of Christianity, or of the literature of times sub- 
sequent. What we have to do with at present, is found 
between two chronologieat termini—the accession of 
TRAJAN, and the death of ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 

Then, as to the materials belonging to this so 
bounded period, various as they are, I handle them 
with entire freedom. As already said, I have no 
nervous anxiety about disputed passages, interpolations, 
or books of doubtful authorship. This only should be 
said, that, as I undertake to do nothing for persons 
pre-resolved to believe nothing, and determined to stick 
to every imaginable paradox that may help them to 
_effect their escape from Christianity, I am supposing 
s0 much acquiescence as to the reality of the materials 


(54) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 55 


before us, as the best informed men, warped by no 
prejudice, will always grant. 

The countries, provinces, and cities of the Roman 
empire, within which Christianity had established itself 
about the middle period of the second century, are 
easily named, and may be certainly known. But to 
what extent, as to the population, in each province or 
city, conversion from heathenism had taken place, must 
be matter of surmise; or at best of probable inference. 
We should incline to hold back from the highest esti- 
mate of this proportion; and therefore must listen 
with caution to the bold assertions of those Christian 
apologists, in following whom we might be led to believe 
that, times of severe suffering allowed for, a majority 
of the people of all the principal cities of the empire 
had become Christians, and that the country folk were 
forsaking their paganism in large numbers. Pliny’s 
report, made to his master at the commencement of 
our period, does indeed carry the same meaning, and 
we might infer as much from other testimonies. But 
the statistics of this subject touches no point of our 
argument. 

Gibbon supposes that not more than a twentieth 
part of the entire population of the empire, at the 
most, was professedly Christian at the moment  pre- 
ceding the edict of Milan. ‘This population, taken 
midway in the second century, he estimates at one 
hundred and twenty millions. We may believe that 
in the interval of a century and a half, the Christian 
proportion had gone on increasing, so that in the time 
of ANronrInuUs Pius we should not be warranted in 
computing them at more than a thirtieth or perhaps 


56 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


a fortieth part of the whole, if we accept Gibbon’s 
rule. 

Yet so low an estimate as this it is not easy to 
reconcile with the averments of Tertullian, loudly 
uttered, and addressed to the hostile Roman authori- 
ties, able and willing enough to give them a flat contra- 
diction, if they had been glaringly false.—We are 
but of yesterday, and we have filled every thing that 
is yours, cities, islands, castles, free towns, council 
halls, the very camps, all classes of men, the palace, 
the senate, the forum. We have left you nothing but 
your temples. We can number (outnumber) your 
armies: there are more Christians in a single province 
(than in your legions!) At the time we are speaking 
of, it is probable that the Roman world included from 
three to five millions of Christian people. 

These, as I have said, were spread over an area 
three thousand miles in length, from east to west, 
and two thousand in breadth, from north to south. I 
take no account here of the ultra-Euphratean Christi- 
anity, which however branched off on the right-hand 
into southern India, and on the left into Parthia, and 
went even so far as China. Media, Persia, Badin 
Arabia, had also listened to the Gospel. 

The machinery of a government so complete and 
efficient as that of the Roman empire, and the univer- 
sality of two- languages, especially the wide diffu- 
sion of the better of the two, and the energies of 
commercial enterprise, and the purer commerce of 
mind—the interchange of philosophy, literature, and 
art—all these reais combined, brought the nations 
then subject to Rome into a conditions of relationship 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 57 


and communion, which perhaps, the boasted facilities 
of modern times do not much, if at all surpass. As 
to the actual velocity of travel, days now stand for 
the weeks of an ancient voyage or journey; or even 
for months; but as to the actual intercommunion of 
nations, the East, and the West, and Africa, it may be 
questioned whether it be greater now than it was in 
the age of Hadrian. 

The spread of the Gospel was favoured by all these 
means of intercourse; and it took to itself the wings 
of every energy which then carried men to ara fro be- 
tween the three continents. It used the roads and the 
ships of the empire; it went in the track of caravans. 
It flowed, as one might say, through the arteries of 
the Greek language, philosophy, and literature; it 
went wherever books had gone before it; culture was 
a preparation of the soil for its reception. Forests 
and wilds it déd penetrate by adventurous and pre- 
carious missions ; but, along with the refinements of a 
high civilization, to dwell as at home. 

In each of the great cities of the empire, Antioch, 
Alexandria, Rome, and in every second, third, and 
fourth-rate city, Christianity claimed an appreciable 
proportion of the citizens as its own ; in some it had 
the majority. From each of these centres it spread 
itself over the surface; at some points imperfectly co- 
lonizing only, in other directions suffusing itself with- 
out limit. Thus did it lodge, or thus dwell, in Spain 
and Gaul, even to the shores of the Northern Ocean. 
Britain, a favored asylum of Roman leisure and re- 
fined rural enjoyment, had welcomed the Gospel from 
the first, Italy, Tlyricum, Macedonia, Thrace, and 


58 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


Greece, it had pervaded, and the provinces of Asia 
Minor still more fully; and in some of its provinces 
and cities the mass of the people were professedly 
Christian. Throughout Armenia, Mesopotamia, and 
Syria, churches well organized had meted out the 
geographical surface, more or less completely. 

In turning the face again westward, the same 
divided state of the population meets us; at some 
points the Christian and the Polytheistic elements 
were nearly balanced. Egypt, Lower and Upper, was 
to a great extent Christian. Cyrene, Carthage, the 
whole of Proconsular Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania, 
had also thus become obnoxious to the Roman state: 
for as to these regions, it was asserted that the new 
religion was rapidly spreading in town and country, 
among all ranks, not even excepting the highest. 

Geographically, or as to square miles, numbered 
on the surface of the globe, the religion of Christ had 
pervaded the entire area which is distinctly known 
to history at the time now before us. Statistically 
it was fast tending toward such a proportion as to 
render its further increase a subject of well-founded 
disquietude to the State. As to classes, it had emerged 
from the servile class: it had spread among the free 
and the privileged; it had taken its position in the 
legions, and had seated itself in places of honour and 
profit. As to mind and learning, it had engaged the 
zealous aid of the best instructed and the most elo- 
quent men of the times. The heathen writers, their 
contemporaries, can claim no superiority over them. 

The facts thus briefly alluded to may, as every one 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 59 


knows, be easily substantiated by citations, Greek and 
Latin, that would fill many pages. 

But for what purpose do I now, and in this cursory 
manner, bring forward what is so well known? Not 
to repeat, for the hundredth time, what has been 
affirmed warrantably, and pointedly, often already: 
That the spread of Christianity—all the conditions 
attending it considered, the place, and the feebleness 
of its origin, the severity of its moral code, its un- 
bendingness, and the furious hostility it encountered ; 
this spread, thus early, is proof of its reality—of its 
truth. So it is: but I have a more specific purpose 
in view. 


CHRISTIANITY — AN INSOLUBLE PROBLEM TO THE ROMAN 
GOVERNMENT. 


VeRY often of late we have been told, that the 
human mind has now at length reached so mature a 
condition as fits it for the task of working out for 
itself the elements of morality, and the principles of 
Religion too—so far as Religion may still seem to 
be serviceable or necessary. ‘This, it is said, we may 
all do for ourselves, without the aid of a Book. What 
need is there now for sending us to gather lessons 
from a Book, all which lessons we may find written 
in our hearts, more legibly, and with fewer admixtures 
of what is obsolete, mystical, or fabulous ? 

By those who thus speak it is granted that Chris- 
tianity did, in its day, effect a good service for the 
nations of the West, in ridding them of the old poly- 
theism, and in giving forth a single expression of the 
truths on which Religion and Worship should rest. 
But having long ago performed this service, we need 
its aid no more; it can have nothing further to teach 
us. 

Without pushing the inquiry, how far these spon- 
taneous elements of morality have, in fact, been 
borrowed from the Boox, or how far the hold they 
have of us, as an authority, is derived from a vague 
unacknowledged reference to the SANCTIONS upon which 
that Book insists, I am willing to accept this home- 
grown morality, with all the sentiments it recognizes, 


(60) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 61 


come whence it may, and shall make an appeal to it, 
and to those sentiments, in a confident and urgent 
manner. Do not draw back from this appeal, and 
you are mine—you yield yourself to Christianity! 

No movement forward among civilized communities 
has ever come so insensibly, or as if it merely grew 
out of abstract principles. In each instance it has been 
the consequence of a visible and obtrusive course of 
events; it has been the result of a CRISIS, brought on 
by some violent shifting of the social forces; and it 
has gone forward through seasons of suffering, and 
by means of struggles, and at the cost of life. 

When the crisis has been passed, it will not suffice 
to sum up the result in a rounded paragraph of gene- 
ralities, and thus to run off with the benefit, forgetful 
of the conditions under which it has been obtained 
for us. Nor will it be enough, merely to assign the 
praise which may be due to those by whose labours 
and sufferings a great achievement has been brought 
to its issue. 7 

Take the case before us, and to which I am about 
to invite your exact attention. It is granted that 
Christianity did a service to mankind, in its time, 
by overthrowing the frivolous and absurd mythology 
and worship which the Roman world upheld, and to 
which it so resolutely clung. Through centuries 
longer these fables and superstitions might have 
retained their place. Thanks to the Martyrs, the whole 
congeries of fables was swept away; a great clearance 
of the ground was made, and whatever might have 
been the supervening errors, that ground has been 


62 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


held open for all those advancements which we rejoice 
in, as indications of even better things to come. 

You allow that Christianity did carry the nations 
through the crisis, and did effect a change indispensable 
to the advancement of mankind; but you affirm that 
its function has long ago determined with the occasion. 
You may so think while you keep the facts at a dis- 
tance, and refuse to descend from generalities. When 
the facts come to be strictly regarded, as they should, 
then it will be seen that conditions of a very peculiar 
kind ‘were attached to that suffering testimony, and 
to that resistance, by means of which the Christian 
body, throughout the Roman world, effected what it 
did effect in the course of two hundred years. These 
conditions imply nothing less than the reality of the 
Christian system, and its consequent perpetuity. 

I affirm that this revolution implies the reality of 
what had brought it on, and compels a belief which 
touches ourselves, and the future. | 

The visible circumstances attending this revolution 
were such as to consist well with our supposition of 
its magnitude, and of the importance of its conse- 
quences. 

The nations of the three Continents had been drawn 
together to take their places upon one platform of 
secular administration: one system of government, 
ruled by the same political maxims, prevailed over the 
whole of this diversified surface. ‘To one will all men 
looked, as the sovereign source of good or ill. All felt 
every moment their relationship of dependence upon 
the common centre; and nations the most remote from 
each other were continuallly made conscious of a rela- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 63 


tionship of welfare among themselves. The living 
organic structure was conscious of its structure, as 
one body. | 

The period of this structural UNITY was coincident 
with the period occupied by that conflict with which we 
are now concerned. The beginning and the end of 
the Christian crisis, or the time during which the 
Church, as a body, resisted the strenuous. endeavour of 
the State to maintain and enforce its own maxims of 
government—this period was synchronous with the 
structural unity of the Empire. When the conflict 
had reached and passed its term, which was when the 
State yielded the main point in dispute, and recog- 
nized Christianity as one among the religzones licttae, 
then the Empire split, never again to be one in the 
same sense. During a sixty years after this crisis had 
been passed through, the conflict between the two 
parties continued to be carried on at intervals, but the 
grounds of it were not the same ; when not attributable 
to the wanton ferocity of the Emperor, individually, 
or to his fanaticism, it had a political more than a re- 
ligious meaning, and expressed the fears of a party 
which felt itself to be losing ground daily. 

The fact, which has often been adverted to, demands 
attention, that at those moments in the course of the 
struggle between the Church and the Empire which 
have the most meaning as related to the point im 
dispute, the Roman world was ruled by princes who 
have ever since occupied pedestals, as models of sove- 
reign benignity, of political wisdom, and of personal 
virtue. Whatever the Christian people, in some pro- 
vinces, might suffer at the hands of ferocious magis- 


64 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


trates or emperors, or from the rabble, when the Church 
suffered in its proper character, as the witness against 
the polytheism of the State, its enemy was always one 
of these pattern princes. 

This was no accident; for it sprung from the con- 
ditions of the contest. Whenever—passion and fana- 
ticism apart, the Roman authorities gave attention to 
the perplexing problem which Christianity had brought 
before them, and when they endeavoured to apply to 
it the only general principle of which they were cogni- 
zant, and to give effect to the undoubted rules of 
Roman policy toward the subjugated nations, then 
they issued edicts, which, cruel and fatal as might be 
the consequences thence resulting, did truly embody 
the unchangeable maxims of the government they 
administered. 

These endeavours—violent in act, temperate in in- 
tention, to break up the perplexity which could not be 
theoretically removed—were of course renewed from 
time to time. The Master of the World, indulgent as 
he was toward the rights of the vanquished gods, could 
not allow the Cerimoniae Romanae to be set at nought, 
nor the religion of the Empire and of all nations to be 
denounced as nugatory and vicious. 

On the part of the Christian body, willing as they 
were to yield obedience to the State, no choice was left 
them but to protest and to suffer. Thus the contest be- 
tween the duty of the State and the conscience of the 
remonstrants was quite hopeless ; for the struggle could 
terminate in no way, but either by the extermination 
of the New Religion and its adherents, or the defeat 
and dishonour of the government. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 65 


But whence came this peremptory necessity, on the 
side of the Christain body, so to protest and so to suffer ? 

The point actually in dispute between themselves and ~ 
the authorities, namely an external compliance with 
rites, meaning little beyond an homage rendered to the 
Emperor as patron of all religions, did not touch the 
main part of the Christian system ; it was an incidental 
consequence only of the system which threw its adhe- 
rents into collision with the State. To profess and 
maintain Monotheism was not the peculiarity of Christi- 
anity. Sages had professed the same belief, and had 
taught it; and so might these Christians, if they would, 
have been content with the promulgation of an abstract 
doctrine. If only they had gone about maintaining the 
purity of Theism, and telling the people, in a good-na- 
tured manner, that the gods they worshipped were no 
gods, though they might often have been roughly treated 
by mobs, yet probably they would have provoked no 
serious animadversion from the Roman government. 

Besides, if an ABSTRACT TRUTH only had been in 
question, and if no other obligation had pressed itself 
upon Christians, beyond that of declaring and teaching 
it when and where they could gain a hearing, evasions 
might easily have been resorted to by themselves, and 
would gladly have been accepted at the tribunals, suffi- 
cient at least for the immediate purpose of screening 
themselves from suffering, and of excusing the magis- 
trate the odious duty of inflicting it. 

The stress of that compulsion which carried so many 
men, women, and youths through the endurance of tor- 
tures, even to death, and which brought so many apos- 
tates, pallid and trembling, to the tribunals, there to 

Gx 


66 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


clear themselves, at the cost of their souls, of the fatal 
suspicion,—this compulsion sprang wholly from the 
perfect conviction they had of the certainty of that 
BODY OF FACTS which constituted, and in which consist- 
ed, their Religious Belief. 

The Belief of Facts, not an opinion of the truth of 
principles, was the impulsive cause of that endurance 
of suffering which we have to consider. 

Now just at this point it has been usual to state the 
argument in behalf of Christianity thus—The constancy 
of the Martyrs gave evidence of the sincerity of their 
faith. This faith of theirs, considering the nearness of 
the events to which it related, and the opportunities 
then at hand for sifting the evidence, and for detecting 
frauds or illusions, is proof of the historic reality of 
the system that was so accepted and suffered for. So 
it may be; but this is not precisely the light in which I 
am looking at the case before ns. 

Perhaps the suffering Church -had not at any time 
given its mind with sifficient care and intelligence 
to the task of sifting that evidence on the ground of 
which it had accepted the Gespel. Its own Belief was 
indeed pronounced in the most unfaltering tone, and on 
the strength of it life was surrendered, and the rack 
endured; but can I take this same Belief as my own, 
on the grounds of that same confidence? ‘This is not 
absolutely certain. 


PERPLEXITIES OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT IN DEALING 
WITH THE NEW RELIGION. 


THE witness-bearing of the early Church through 
seasons of intermittent suffering, and during the hun- 
dred and fifty years to which we now confine our atten- 
tion, is available in argument, either cndefinitely or 
definitely. Indefinitely, and yet conclusively, if we 
choose to follow our better feelings, showing the excel- 
lence of the Religion which was so contended for ; its 
moral power also; and, by legitimate inference, its 
truth. No fault should be found with this mode of rea- 
soning; but yet we may have recourse to another. 
Precisely what I intend will best appear in giving at- 
tention to two or three of those instances of constancy 
to which imperial edicts gave occasion. 

The first of these instances possesses the advantage of 
meeting us in a form that is exempt from suspicion of 
naving been dressed up or coloured, to serve a purpose. 
You will at once know that I have in view the 97th 
Epistle of Pliny Junior, and the imperial reply to it. 

In this well-defined instance the perplexity of the 
Roman magistrate on the one hand, and the necessity 
he felt himself under to act as he did toward the Dissi- 
dents, and, on their part, the counter-necessity that 
compelled them to suffer, present themselves free from 
all ambiguity. 

The Proprzetor found the province to which he had 
been appointed in a state to which he could not be in- 


(67) 


68 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


different. Things, as they were, could not be left to 
take their course. The mass of the people of all classes 
—multi enim omnis statis, omnis ordinis, utriusque 
sextis—or, to put the lowest sense we can upon the lan- 
guage of Pliny, a large proportion of them had become 
not simply indifferent, to the Religion of the State, but 
eager to denounce it as false, and they had adopted 
another. The temples were forsaken, the simulacra of 
the gods and of the emperor were defrauded of the cus- 
tomary homage; and, besides, stated assemblages of 
the people were having place for purpose unknown, and 
therefore unlawful, and not to be tolerated. 

It does not appear through what remissness of the 
authorities this defection had spread so far. But this 
new representative of the Majesty of the Empire, by 
showing himself awake to his duty, and aware of the 
danger impending, had, by proclamation of imperial 
edicts, by judicial inquests, and by the infliction of capi- 
tal punishment upon the refractory, made some progress 
in restoring law, and in recovering for the Oxrimoniae 
Roumanae the lost ground, before he had determined to 
report the facts to his master, and ask instructions. 
Multitudes of the people at once renounced their Chris- 
tianity, and cleared themselves of all suspicion by com- 
pliance with the sacrificial rites, and by uttering, with 
the required maledictions, the NAME which had come to 
designate the new community. For the purpose of 
effecting these conversions in a legal manner, the Ro- 
man magistrate had caused the effigies of the gods and 
of the emperors to be brought into court. 

Can we fancy that we see them coming forward, dolls, 
or be they what they might, shouldered by the officers 


THE RESTORATION OF BSLIEF. 69 


of justice, and nodding, as they came! In style of art 
vastly superior are these simulacra to the hideous blocks 
which now grin in our museums, representatives of the 
gods of Owyhee and the Sandwich Islands; and yet, 
whether mofe or less sightly, these effigies, and the vast 
system of worship which they symbolized, were dblocks, 
standing in the way of the next great movement for- 
ward which the human mind was to take. 

This enlightened Roman gentleman, well conversant 
as he was with whatever had been said and taught by 
the philosophers of Greece and Rome, was conscious of 
no humiliation, he did not blush when these stupid sym- 
bols had been poised near him, and he, prompting the 
form of appellation—przeeunte me—pointed to them as 
fit objects of devout regard! The accused, pale and 
trembling as they did that which he did not exact, offered 
the incense and the wine, and departed ! 

If the Roman State, then in so advanced a condition 
of intellectual refinement, and when represented by a 
philosopher and a man of letters, thus showed that it 
was not then making, and had not made, any progress 
toward a better Theology, can it be thought probable 
that any such reform would spontaneously come about ? 
Whether or not there might yet be a chance of some 
spontaneous reform, the actual reform which did at 
length take place—the actual expulsion of the gods, and 
’ the riddance then effected for the human mind of this 
encumbrance, this stop to progress, was otherwise 
brought about. 

How then was it effected? Not by the silent spread- 
ing of an opinion, or by the gentle diffusion of a better 
Theologic IpzEA—platonie or of any other sort; but in 


70 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


this severe manner, namely, that in all the provinees 
of the Roman empire, as in this of Bithynia, a multi- 
tude of the people, high and low, had ‘accepted, as cer- 
tain, a belief concerning a PERSON, which belief did, by 
an incidental consequence therewith connected, forbid 
their compliance with polytheistic rites, and compel 
them to suffer. 

However many, at a time of alarm, might be the fal- 
tering and the timid, there were never wanting some of 
firmer moral structure, who, as Pliny here tells ns, 
‘‘could by no means be induced either to offer sacrifice 
to the gods, or to speak injuriously of Christ.’’ Rather 
than do this, they endured torments, and they accepted 
death. 

This constancy of the early Christians, so severely 
tried, might well be admitted as valid proof of the 
reality of the belief on which it rested, especially con- 
nected as it was with a blameless morality. Such an 
admission will readily be made by every mind that is 
fraught with moral sensibility, and which has not been 
damaged by sophistry. Every natural sympathy car- 
ries us along with the sufferers, as we stand in the 
crowd and witness the grave inflexibility of some, the 
flushed excitement of others, of youths and women, and 
the tremors and the anguish of many who yet did 
endure to the end. ‘Thus far, or so far as our truest 
emotions will carry us, we involuntarily side with the 
condemned. With them we think that “they be no 
gods which are graven with art and man’s device.” 
With them we feel, when we see them led out to die 
rather than yield their belief, or be false to it. 

But might not these Christians have excused them- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 71 


selves, and by means of some evasion have stood clear of 
consequences so frightful? Whether they might have 
done so or not, 1t would now be superfluous to inquire. 
They did not do so, and it was by a century and a-half 
of suffering, on the part of the Church, that the gods 
were thrown from their pedestals. 

This was the obvious part of the revolution which 
was then taking place. But another revolution—not 
obvious indeed, and yet not less important, and not less 
indispensable in relation to the progress of the human 
mind and the development of its higher faculties—was 
then, and by the same terrible means, brought about. 

We may just imagine that the philosophic Pliny, 
if we could have taken him apart in his hours of relaxa- 
tion, might have been brought on so far as to acknow- 
ledge that the men whom he had ordered to execu- 
tion in the morning, were right on the great principle 
of Monotheism. ‘This abstract doctrine was not new 
to him, and it had received the adhesion of illustrious 
ages. ‘I'here stood, however, in the rear of this purer 
theology, a principle, then in course of development, 
which neither Pliny nor any man of his time had 
thought of, or could have been made to comprehend. 
Yet it is the axiom on which hinges the immeasurable 
moral difference between classical antiquity and the 
modern mind. ven the sufferers in that early contest 
were not competent to put forward a clear enunciation 
of the principle which themselves were so painfully 
bringing to bear upon human affairs. 

At present we stand clear of the question as to the 
truth of the Religion, in behalf of which the early 
Church gave its suffering testimony. We abstain also 


72 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


from what belongs to those moral and spiritual benefits 
which Christianity brought with it, and postpone also 
all inquiry touching its own interior beauty and gran- 
deur. The one purport of these preliminary pages is 
to put in a distinct light what it was which the Church 
of the early age did for mankind in preparation for a 
new moral era, and under what conditions this neces- 
sary function was discharged. If the same statement, 
somewhat varied in terms, seems to recur within the 
limit of a few pages, pardon the brief trespass on 
your patience: this repetition may save us time in 
treating those deeper subjects which I have mainly in 
view. 

A final clearance of the gods and goddesses was to 
be effected; and this, not by the gentle means of philo- 
sophic suasion, but by bringing thousands of the people, 
in all provinces of the Roman empire, into a posi- 
tion of unavoidable resistance toward the government, 
neither party finding it possible to retreat from its 
ground: not the government, because the first prin- 
ciples of the empire were impugned by this opposition ; 
not the Christian people, because it was not a mere 
opinion that sustained their position, but a belief 
toward a PERSON whose authority they regarded as 
paramount to every other. 

‘To insist on the one side, and to resist on the other, 
were evenly-balanced necessities, of which frequent 
martyrdoms were the inevitable consequence. 

But this violent process, in the course of which an 
issue in favour of the sufferers was continually be- 
coming more certain, gave effect to a principle unap- 
prehended by antiquity, and only in an indistinct 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 73 


manner, and insensibly recognized on the Christian 
side; yet apart from which there could have been 
no such development of the human mind in the mass, 
and no such depth given to the moral faculties indivi- 
dually, as have in fact come to set the modern, immea- 
surably in advance of the ancient, civilization. 

The virtue and duty of truthfulness, as between man 
and man, had been taught, and well enough understood, 
among ancient nations, whether more or less advanced in 
civilization. And so had the religious sanctions of mora- 
lity. That one lesson which remained to be brought out 
and to be wronght into the hearts of men, was the RELI- 
GIOUS OBLIGATION OF BELIEF; an obligation not resting 
upon communities as a public or social charge, but pend- 
ing with the whole of its weight upon the conscience of 
the individual man; an obligation personal, a privilege 
unalienable, and when duly discharged, a function giving 
the individual man a pledge of his immortality. 

Unti this general principle shtuld be worked out as 
an axiom in morals, nothing could be hoped for as to 
the destinies of the human family. Now that it has 
been thus worked out, and has been accepted as an 
axiom, the aspect of human affairs can never be so 
lowering, as that we should despond concerning those 
destinies. But have we sufficiently regarded the fact, 
that this great problem was solved for us by the martyr 
Church of the century and half now in prospect? 

The sufferers did not know precisely what they were 
doing in this behalf; and yet, with an observable uni- 
formity, the professions made before tribunals and on 
scaffolds took the true directions as related thereto. 

As it had been with Pliny, so with L. Statius Qua- 

7 


74 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


dratus, proconsul of Asia: his personal dispositions 
were such as were becoming to a Roman magis- 
trate ; he was neither sanguinary nor fanatical ; but his 
position in the province was different. The severities 
to which Pliny had allowed himself to have recourse 
were prompted entirely by his own sense of public 
duty: otherwise they were uncalled for. But Qua- 
dratus found himself pressed upon by the fanaticism 
of the populace; the rabble of Smyrna, incited, as it 
appears by the Jews, was up, and a victim must be 
thrown out to appease the monster. 

The martyrdom of Polycarp, whatever else it may 
show or may prove, brings out distinctly those condi- 
tions of the struggle between Christianity and the 
State, to which I have already adverted. The aged 
bishop so behaved on the occasion as the rule of Chris- 
tian constancy required him to behave; nor can there 
be alleged against him any indication of fanatical ex- 
citement. He had consented to conceal himself from 
the Proconsul’s officers so long as this course might 
fairly be taken. He surrendered himself to them with 
dignity, and these officers had, no doubt, been enjoined 
to treat so venerable a man with due respect. He was 
urged to yield so far to the authorities as might enable 
them to screen him from the popular fury. Why not 
invoke the Emperor, and offer sacrifice? What harm 
can there be in uttering the words Kypve Kovoup, and then 
to sacrifice, and thus to save yourself?  xai Ovea xai 
Siacdfeodar. This advice, kindly intended, was importu- 
nately urged. ‘‘ Never shall I do what you advise.” 
Then if not, the time of forbearance had passed, and 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 15 


the aged man was thrust from the chariot with violence 
by those who had charge of him. | 

Yet, notwithstanding the clamour of the mob, when 
the bishop’s name was proclaimed in court, the Procon- 
sul used all persuasions that might shake his constancy ; 
and in so doing he shines by the side of the philosopher, 
who, while surrounded by a trembling crowd, at once 
sends whoever would not yield, to capital punishment. 
“Swear by the genius of Cxsar. Change your purpose 
—utter the words, ‘ Away with the Atheists.’ ” 

‘Away with the Atheists,’ he could say in his own 
sense, and he said it with a groan. “ Then swear, 
and I will release you: revile Christ!” This might 
not be. Polycarp had been numbered with the ser- 
vants of Christ from his infancy ;—his martyrdom oc- 
curred A. D. 167, or a year later; in his youth, there- 
fore, he was contemporary with the last survivor of 
the Apostles, and thus the whole of his religious per- 
suasion resolved itself into a personal consciousness of 
facts. These facts, true or false, or partly true and 
partly illusory, constituted the ground or ultimate 
reason of his constancy: how could he blaspheme his 
“King AND Saviour?” “I ama Christian,” and ° 
therefore, while professing the Christian rule to obey 
magistrates, no way of escape was opened to hin, 
except that of contradicting the consciousness he had 
of his own history. 

With Polycarp this consciousness was more imme- 
diate and more personal than it could be with others, 
his contemporaries ; nevertheless with them, not less 
than with himself, the ground of that Christian forti- 
tude which, in the end, prevailed over the polytheism 


76 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


of the State, was a BELIEF toward a PERSON; it was 
not an opinion as to a doctrine: and here we should 
take care to distinguish between the various motives 
that might come in to sustain the courage of a martyr 
in his extremity of suffering, and the ONE GROUND on 
which his constancy rested. In the instance of the 
Bishop of Smyrna (as in that of Cyprian, probably, ) 
considerations of personal honour, as the venerated 
Chief of the Christian people around him, may have 
had an influence. So might the motive to which he 
himself alludes: “‘ You threaten me with a fire which 
does its work in one hour; but you think not of the 
fire of eternal punishment that awaits the wicked.” 
These, or other motives, would have shown little in- 
trinsic force, if they had rested upon an opinion; their 
power sprang from their connexion with a definite his- 
toric belief. 


THE OBLIGATIONS OF CONSCIENCE WERE AT LENGTH 
RECOGNIZED. 


It is in the course of things that a Great Prin- 
ciple of conduct should have been long acted upon, 
perhaps for a century or more, before it comes to be 
explicitly recognized, or to be formally defined and 
registered in treatises. So it was in the present in- 
stance. The suffering Church had felt the sacred obli- 
gations of Truth, and Christians, individually, had 
passed through the fiery trial which these obligations 
required them to meet,—compelled so to do by a tacit 
recognition of this principle, that he who fears God 
must not deny his inward Belief, even although the 
avowal costs him life. 

The acts of the early martyrdom might be copi- 
ously cited in illustration of what is here affirmed. 
But at length, as was natural, the implicit Principle 
got utteranee for itself, and it did so continually with 
more and more distinctness: it came to be defined, 
until that great Law of ConscreNncr, which places the 
modern mind in so great an advance beyond the 
ancient mind, was allowed to stand in the very fore- 
front of ethical axioms. 

I do not know whether it might not be found in 
nearly as distinct a form among the earlier Christian 
writings; but it zs found, well and finely enunciated 
m that admirable Tract in which Origen deals so 
strictly with the consciences of his Christian contem- 


T* (77) 


78 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


poraries, who were then passing through a season of 
the most severe suffering. The treatise— urging to 
martyrdom,” is of considerable length. It must suflice 
to state the drift of it, so far as it bears upon my 
present purpose. 

The terrors of torture—more than the fear of death, 
(for at that time the infliction of torture, rather than 
of death appears to have been the determinate inten- 
tion of the Roman authorities) had shaken the con- 
stancy of many among the Christians; and so it was 
that pleas and evasions of every kind had been sought 
for and had been found, by aid of which the religious 
obligations attaching to a Christian belief might be 
made to consist with a retreat from the field of con- 
flict. Origen meets and refutes these evasions, one 
by one, and in doing so he gives expression to a 
principle which we all of this age—believers and 
unbelievers, profess. to think sacred, and which we 
acknowledge as the basis of personal virtue, in the 
abandonment of which all self-respect is gone. 

Well does this confessor labour to animate the 
courage of his faltering brethren by opening before 
them the prospect of immortality: but he hastens 
toward his main purpose, which was to snatch from 
them those evasive pleas, in search of which too many 
of them were employing an ill-directed ingenuity. 
The timid were trying to persuade themselves that 
a genuine faith, hidden in the heart, might avail for 
ensuring their salvation; for “with the heart man 
believeth for justification’ —nay, but salvation has 
another condition, which is not by us to be severed 
from the first, for, ‘‘ with the mouth confession is made 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 79 


unto salvation ;’ and there might be room to think 
that a bold confession of the truth, even if the heart 
is too little animated by love to God, honours Him 
more than does a heart which withholds this con- 
fession. 

Whether we grant this or not, it must be acknow- 
ledged that this Father is here laying the foundation- 
stone of our modern sense of the stern obligation of 
religious sincerity. Yet the laying the stone at that 
time, what courage did it demand? Such courage as 
he himself displayed in the hour of trial? 

The Proconsul Quadratus, as we have seen, had 
vehemently urged upon Polycarp the friendly advice, 
to save himself by uttering five words—Only swear by 
the genius of Cesar, and I will let you go. It means 
nothing, or very little. It appears that the Christians 
of a later time had begun to suggest this very evasion, 
one to another, and that they were endeavouring to get it 
aczredited and accepted as valid. Not so, says Origen, it 
is a hollow excuse, and will not save you. If it be a trans- 
gression to swear by Heaven, by Harth, by Jerusalem, 
by one’s own head, how much greater a sin must it be 
to swear by the fortunes of another, 64. va: ruyzv cwd.? 
Can we dare to whisper a faithless purpose in the 
presence of Him who declares that he is jealous of His 
right over us; and to do this at the moment when in- 
quiry is made concerning our faith, and when torments 
are in sight? ‘Confess me before men,’ says Christ, 
‘TI will confess you: deny me, and I deny you.’ 

To give no place to the Devil, who is ever sug- 
gesting evasions, to allow no thoughts which tend to 
a denial of Christ to lodge in our hearts, to put from 


80 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


us the very recollection of those most dear to us, 
children and wife, or earthly possessions,—to do this 
is to satisfy the requirements of Christ: to do other- 
wise, or any thing less, is to fall short of them, and we 
must take the consequence. 

Let us note the fact that this strenuous mode of 
dealing with the infirm consciences of his brethren, on 
the part of Origen, and whence were to result benefits 
incalculable to mankind, drew the whole of its force 
from an historic source, that: is to say, from the 
authority of CHRIst. 

When we entered, says Origen, upon the Christian 
life, we pledged ourselves to observe its conditions, to 
take up the cross, and to deny ourselves, even for His 
sake who shed His precious blood for our redemption. 

As to the common obligations of truthfulness, as 
between man and man, they had long before been well 
understood; but now this new and higher obligation, 
binding man, individually, to God as the object of all 
worship and duty, came on to be enforced, and Origen 
urges it upon his brethren with reasons which could not 
be rebutted; and he sustains these reasons, not by 
philosophy (with which however he himself was eon- 
versant,) but by many pertinent citations of Scripture. 
To give this higher obligation its utmost force, he infers 
it from the tenor of Christ’s admonitions to his dis- 
ciples, that the call to martydom is a divine call; it is 
a summons on the part of God, calling upon His ser- 
vants to bear testimony, on Hrs behalf, before the 
world. Who shall disobey this summons, when thus it 
is uttered? ‘Ye are my witnesses before all nations; 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 8] 


and 1t shall be given you in the hour when it is needed, 
what ye shall speak.” 

He who thus exhorted his brethren to hold fast their 
profession steadfast unto the end, did himself hold it 
fast: for although he did not die én martyrdom he died 
of it. When a boy he had written to his father, then 
in prison as a Christian: ‘Be steadfast, and do not 
think of us:’ a life of labour, penury, and suffering, for 
Christ’s sake, was his own commentary on this filial 
and generous admonition. From his master, CLEMENT 
of Alexandria, ORIGEN had learned the rudiments of 
that doctrine which he more fully expounds: It is, says 
Clement, from the love of God that we are to suffer as 
Christians. Having taken upon ourselves the name of 
Curist, if we shrink from the confession of: Him, we 
are not called men of little faith, or of weak faith; but 
of none. Thus was the Religious Obligation of Truth 
interpreted to demand suffering for the sake of it, when- 
ever the Christian was challenged to answer the ques- 
tion—Art thou a Christian ? 

From the pages of every Christian writer of the 
second and third centuries, passages might easily be 
cited, showing that, though differently expressed, this 
one principle was working itself forward into notice, 
until it should become the recognized law of the Chris- 
tian profession. ‘Better for us to die, than to live, and 
lie to God.’ In a condensed form it stood thus :—It is 
I who now, if I dare not forego my hope of immortality, 
must endure the scourge, the rack, the fire! It is L 
who must meet death, thus armed with aggravated 
terrors! The question whether I shall face these ter- 
rors, or shall turn aside from them, is between God 


82 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


and my soul. My Christian brethren may indeed aid 
me by their plaudits and exhortations while I suffer, 
but they can neither suffer these torments for me, nor 
can they take upon themselves the future consequences 
if I fall away, and deny my Lord: they cannot be con- 
demned in my- place. 

It was thus, and it was by a process of such extreme 
severity, and it was by the repetition of it in thousands 
of instances, through the lapse of more than two hun- 
dred years, that the most signal of all the revolutions 
which have marked the moral history of man was 
effected, and was lastingly established. It was thus 
that the INDIVIDUAL MAN was lifted up from his obscure 
place, as a unit in the mass of humanity, and was raised 
to his true position, and was invested with his proper 
dignity, as related individually to God. It was thus, 
and it was amid the unutterable horrors of the pagan 
persecutions, that the meanest of the ‘species, the slave, 
the outcast, did at length secure for himself, and for his 
peers of all times and countries, a formal recognition of 
his worth and rights, as the equal—in a moral estimation 
—of the noble and the learned. It was thus, even by the 
endurance of all imaginable forms of misery on the part 
of the thousands whose names have perished on earth, 
that we, of this present time, have learned to regard 
with religious respect, and patiently to listen to, who- 
ever it is that, in the name of God, comes forward to 
protess his BELIEF—yes, or his DISBELIEF. 


MARTYRS FOR A FACT; AND MARTYRS FOR A DOCTRINE. 


THE removal of polytheism was a great work; and 
yet the recognition and the development of that Princi- 
ple which assigns to man his true place and dignity, 
was a greater or more difficult work. Both were effect- 
ed by the constancy of the Early Church; both were 
effected by means of a long-continued and most severe 
course of suffering; and both sprung out of, and were 
inseparably connected with, a Definite Persuasion, as 
to the EVENTS of a preceding time, and as to the au- 
thority of a Psrson, and as to the authenticity of 
BOOKS. 

Yet the modern world has not come into the enjoy- 
ment of the benefits which were thus won for it by the 
Ancient Church, without a further conflict; and this 
conflict was even more severe than the first, and was 
of much longer continuance. 

Perhaps it might be possible to glean from the pages 
of classical antiquity so many as half-a-dozen sen- 
tences, bearing an apparent resemblance to those which 
are found so plentifully in the early Christian writers, 
and in which the religious obligations of truth are 
affirmed. Even if it were so, the facts remain precisely 
as they were; for whatever philosophers might have 
said, they had wholly failed to gain a hearing for their 
doctrine among the people. Nor did the governments 
of those times ever recognize any such principle; they 


(88) 


84 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


understood nothing of the sort. To the Early Church 
it was as if the bare idea had never before presented 
itself to the mind of man. The battle had to be fought 
on ground every inch of which must be contended for: 
it was otherwise as to the assault upon polytheism, for 
on this ground a better theology had been long before 
propounded, although not accepted. 

But when at length the Church, by which we mean 
the Christian Body throughout the Roman world, had 
achieved this great service, and had given expression to 
what may be called the Martyr principle, there follow- 
ed a consequence which was to entail upon the world a 
new catena of martyrdoms. 

A consciousness of the sacred obligations of Religious 
Truth had given the anciént Marryr his constancy ; 
but then a spurious counterpart of the same principle 
followed very quickly, and it served to inflame the fa- 
naticism of the Persecuror. It was thus argued: If 
it be a duty we owe to God to profess the TRUTH, even 
at the cost of life, must it not be a duty of parallel 
obligation, to suppress and exterminate Error? This 
inference, illogical as it was, did not wait long to be 
drawn or to be acted upon. It became an almost univer- 
sally admitted axiom. Shall we attempt to number its 
victims ? Doubtless they have been a thousand times 
as many as those that were immolated by the pagan 
authorities. 

This wrong and fatal Inference, accepted so early as 
it was, came at length to be regarded as an axiom, 
needing no proof, indeed admitting of none, for it was 
self-evident. If you would seé in how cool and confid- 


, 
THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 85 


ing a manner it is advanced, read the Epistles of Inno- 
cent III., and thé sermons of St. Bernard. 

If the mere exclusion of SUFFERING and TRIAL were 
the only consideration worth regarding, then one might 
be tempted to wish the FIRST PRINCIPLE—the Martyr 
doctrine—true and good as it is, had for ever slept, - 
unthought of, rather than that, in becoming known, it 
should have given occasion to the establishment of its 
spurious counterpart—the Persecutor’s doctrine. But 
we are not at liberty thus to wish; we may not thus 
reason; for every thing about us shows that the ulti- 
mate destinies of the human family are not otherwise 
to be reached than through deep blood-sodden ways of 
suffering, extreme in degree, and drawn out through 
centuries. 

It is—it must be, enough for us, that the terrible re- 
sults of the spurious Inference whence all persecutions 
have borrowed their apology, have not availed to de. 
prive us of the inestimable benefits of the previous 
Truth. This Truth is ours now; it is ours as an in- 
heritance, the encumbrances of which have all been dis- 
charged. Dare we relinquish it? When we do so, a 
night that can have no morning will be before us. 

But at this present moment we, that is, we Christian 
men are forbidden to entertain the thought of any such 
treason by those who (so strange sometimes are the 
shiftings of positions among parties) are vehemently, 
nay even passionately, taking up the Martyr Principle 
won for us by the ancient Church, and are pleading it 
in their own behalf, while they are making their deadly 
assault upon this same Christianity! It may be well 
to listen for a moment to this new utterance of an old, 


8 


RH THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


but not obsolete, doctrine. How is it that the apostles 
of Disbelief screen themselves from rebuke? It is by 
taking to themselves the Truth which the “ noble army 
of Martyrs” purchased for the world on the rack and 
at the stake ! 
A recent writer professes his confidence that his 
reader will “judge his argument (in disproof of Christi- 
anity) and himself, as before the bar of God.” Do we 
not hear in these words the very tones of the Martyr 
Church? “ * * If faith be a spiritual and per- 
sonal thing; if Belief, given at random to mere high pre- 
tensions, is an immorality; if Truth is not to be quite 
trampled down, nor Conscience to be wholly palsied in 
us; then what, I ask, was I to do when I saw that the 
genealogy in the first chapter of Matthew is an errone- 
ous copy of that in the Old Testament, and that the 
writer has not only copied wrong, but also counted 
wrong, so as to mistake eighteen for fourteen ie 

Then, when a second and a more serious discrepancy 
presented itself, what course did this “martyr” take ? 

‘On what ground of righteousness, which I could 
approve to God and my conscience, could I shut my 
eyes to this second fact?” Again, finding Christianity 
utterly indefensible: ‘‘ Would it have been faithfulness 
to the God of Truth, or a self-willed love of my own 
prejudices, if I had said, I will not inquire further, for 
fear it should unsettle my faith?” To have stopped 
any where in this course of disbelieving would have been 
in his view, “‘sinful;’’ it would have been to “ plant the 
root of insincerity, falsehood, bigotry, cruelty, and uni- 
versal rottenness of soul.” 

I think I could have shown this writer, or any who 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 87 


may take the same ground, what he might have done 
amid these perplexities, which would have been far better, 
than on account of difficulties such as these, to renounce 
Christianity! But this is beside my present purpose. 
This writer thinks that, to have shrunk from his con- 
victions, which ended in his entire rejection of the Gos- 
pel, would have been “infidelity to God, and Truth, 
and righteousness.” 

if, indeed, the case be thus, then it is certain that 
this great Principle of the Religious Obligations of 
Truth must not be abandoned by any of us. But we 
may listen to another witness, who speaks to the same 
effect, and he is one whose testimony is equally unex- 
ceptionable. He professes to admire the Bible, but he 
protests against its pretensions, as of divine origin, or 
as possessing any authority more than belongs to the 
Iliad, or to the Divina Comedia, or to the Paradise 
Lost, or to Shakspeare’s Macbeth: he says, “‘ We may 
not lie to God. It may be convenient to let things 
alone; it may save cowards trouble to shrink from 
the responsibility of using honestly the faculties which 
God has given them: but it will not do in the long 
run; and the debt of longest date bears the heaviest 
interest.” 

So thought the martyr bishop of Antioch, and the 
martyr bishop of Smyrna, and the tens of thousands 
who, in their day, have trod the same thorny path to a 
land which none shall reach who have ‘lied to God.” 
Thus far then Believers and Unbelievers are entirely 
agreed: yet let another witness be heard; and in hear- 
ing him one might think that his words are an echo 
that has come softly travelling down, through sixteen cen- 


88 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


turies, from some field of blood, or some forum, or some 
amphitheatre, where Christian men were witnessing a 
good confession in the midst of their mortal agonies ! 
This witness is one who assures us that ‘‘ he can believe 
no longer, he can worship no longer: he has discovered 
that the Creed of his early days is baseless, or falla- 
cious.” Yet he, too, takes up the MARTYR TRUTH, that 
we must not lie to God. He is one to whom “the pur- 
suit of Truth is a daily martyrdom—how hard and bitter 
let the martyr say. Shame to those who make it 
doubly so! honour to those who encounter it, saddened, 
weeping, trembling, but unflinching still!” 

Thus far then we are all of one mind—we Christians 
of this present age, and these our contemporaries, who 
denounce our belief as absurd, and they, the martyrs of 
the early time, who ascertained the same moral rule, 
and, for our use, sealed it with their blood. We, be- 
lievers and unbelievers, hold it as a fixed principle, as 
did the martyrs of old, that if we lie to God, we consign 
ourselves to perdition, or to some unknown future woe, 
we know not what. 

Yet there is this difference among us, and it has an 
ominous aspect. 

We Christian men of this age, along with our venera- 
ted martyr brethren of the ancient Church, in making 
this profession—That we may not he to God, nor deny 
before men our inward conviction in matters of religion : 
we (as they did) affirm that which is consistent within 
itself, and which, in the whole extent of its meaning, is 
certain and is reasonable, grant us only our initial pos- 
tulate, that Christianity is from Heaven. 

But how is it when this same solemn averment comes 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 89 


from the lips of those who deny that postulate, and who 
scorn to recognize the voice of God in the Book? It 
is just thus; and those whom it concerns so to do, owe 
st to the world and to themselves, to make the ingenious 
avowal. 

In the first place, the style, and the very terms em- 
ployed by these writers, in enouncing the fact of the 
martyrdom they are undergoing, are all a flagrant 
plagiarism, and nothing better! A claim, in behalf 
of the Gospel, must be made of what is its own, and 
which these writers, without leave asked, have appro- 
priated. As to every word and phrase upon which the 
significance of this their profession turns, it must be 
given up, leaving them in possession of so much only 
of the meaning of such phrases as would have been 
intelligible to PLUTARCH, to Porpuery, and to M. 
Avretius. A surrender must be made of the words 
ConscreNcE; and TruTH, and RIGHTEOUSNESS, and SIN; 
and, alas! modern unbelievers must be challenged to 
give me back that ONE awe-fraught Name which they 
(must I not plainly say so ?) have stolen out of the BOOK: 
when they have frankly made this large surrender, we 
may return to them the 7d «toy of classical antiquity. 

Yet this plagiarism, as to terms, is the smaller part of 
that invasion of rights with which the same persons are 
chargeable. It is reasonable, and it is what a good man 
must do, to suffer any thing, rather than deny a persua- 
sion which is such that he could not, if he would, cast it 
off. So it was with the early Christian martyrs: their 
persuasion of the truth of the Gospel had become part 
of themselves ; it was faith absolute, in the fullest sense 
of the word. The same degree of irresistible persuasion 

Qx 


90 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


attaches to the conclusions of mathematical or physical 
science; but it never can belong to an opinion, or to an 
undefined abstract belief. A man may, indeed, choose 
to die rather than contradict his personal persuasion of 
the truth of an opinion; but in doing so he has no right 
to take to himself the martyr’s style. So to speak is 
to exhibit, not constancy, but opiniativeness, or an over- 
weening confidence in his own reasoning faculty. 

Polycarp could not have refused to die when the only 
alternative was to blaspheme Curist, his Lord: but 
Plutarch could not have been required to suffer in attes- 
tation of his opinion—good as it was—that the Poets 
have done ill in attributing the passions and perturba- 
tions of human nature to the immortal gods; nor 
Seneca, in behalf of those astronomical and meteorolo- 
gical theories with which he entertains himself and his 
friend Lucilius. 

When those who, after rejecting Christianity, talk of 
suffering for the ‘‘ truth of God,” and speak as if they 
were conscience-bound “ toward God,” they must know 
that they not only borrow a language which they are 
not entitled to avail themselves of, but that they invade 
a ground of religious belief whereon they can establish 
for themselves no right of standing. ‘They may indeed 
profess what opinion they please, as to the Divine 
Attributes ; but they cannot need to be told that which 
the misgivings of their own hearts so often whisper to 
them, that all such opinions are, at the very best, open 
to debate, and must always be indeterminate, and that 
at this time their own possession of the opinion which 
just now they happen to cling to, is, in the last degree, 
precarious. How, then, can martyrdom be transacted 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 91 


among those whose treading is upon the fleecy clouds 
of undemonstrable religious feeling ? 

Educated men should not wait to be Pomannied that 
those who, after abandoning a peremptory historic 
Belief, endeavor to retain Faith and Piety for their 
comfort, stand upon a slopethat has no ledges: Athe- 
ism in its simplest form yawns to receive those who 
there stand; and they know themselves to be gravita- 
ting toward it. 

It would be far more reasonable for a man to 
die as a martyr for Atheism—a stage beyond which 
no further progress is possible, than to do so at 
any point short of that terminus, knowing as he 
does that every day is bringing him nearer to the 
gulph. The stronger the mind is, and the more it 
has of intellectual massiveness, the more rapid will 
be its descent upon this declivity. Minds of little 
density, and of much airy sentiment, may stay long 
where they are, just as gnats and flies walk to and fro 
upon the honied sides of a china vase; they do not go 
down, but never again will they fly. 


RELATIVE FORCE OF SCIENCE AND OF MATTERS OF 
RELIGIOUS OPINION. 
6 

THROUGH a strange misapprehension of the pre- 
sent tendency of things, within the commonwealth of 
Philosophy, those who are struggling to save the 
PIETISM OF DISBELIEF have made allusion to the 
progress of the SCIENCES, as threatening the imme- 
diate destruction of Christianity. We are told that 
our obsolete Creed will be rent from us by the Phy- 
sical sciences, as they advance. 

A wonderful miscalculation it is that has led astray 
those who thus think, and thus speak. The modern 
Physical sciences, Astronomy, Geology, Physiology, 
have indeed availed to dispel from Christian Belief 
this or that superstition, the demolition of which has 
occasioned pain to minds of a certain class, and has 
spread alarm among many ; but the issue will be wholly 
good and confirmatory. I hope hereafter to show you 
on what ground I think so; and I do not wish it to 
be supposed that I am either unmindful of the diffi- 
culties that have had their origin in this quarter, or 
that I am intending to evade the consideration of them. 
But whatever damage science may do to Christianity, 
its operation (so marvellously forgotten by the writers 
in question) will be, not to damage, but to put right 
out of existence every form and phase of those Pietistic 
notions which it may have been thought possible to 


retain when Christianity is gone. The fate of all those 
(92) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 93 


varieties of sentimental doctrine is already sealed—it 
is sealed by the hand of our modern Physical sciences ! 
How and why this should be taking place has not, 
I think, been understood; and I invite attention to it. 

In any case when that which on any ground of 
proof takes full hold of the understanding, (such, for 
example, are the most certain of the conclusions of 
Geology,) stands contiguous to that which, in a logical 
sense, is of inferior quality, and is indeterminate, and 
fluctuating, and liable to retrogression,—in any such 
case there is always going on a silent encroachment 
of the more solid mass upon the ground of that which 
is less solid. What is suRE will be pressing upon 
what is uncertain, whether or not the two are de- 
signedly brought into collision or comparison. What 
is well defined weighs upon, and against, what is ill 
defined. Nothing stops the continuous involuntary 
operation of SCIENCE, in dislodging OPINION from the 
minds of those who are conversant with both. 

A very small matter that is indeed determinate, 
will be able to keep a place for itself against this 
incessantly encroaching movement; but nothing else 
can do so. As to any of those theosophic fancies, 
which we may wish to cling to, after we have thrown 
away the Bible, we might as well suppose that they 
will resist the impact of the Mathematical and Physical 
Sciences, as imagine that the lichens of an Alpine 
gorge will stay the slow descent of a glacier. 

It is not that these demonstrable Sciences are likely 
to be brought designedly into antagonism with the 
theosophics of Disbelief. But instead of this, these 
sciences are now coming down in one compact mass, 


94 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


upon all varieties of mere opinion: without noise are 
they coming, yet certainly, to raze them from the 
soil where they grow. ‘Travelling in its might, this 
solid mass will scrape the surface over which it travels 
quite bare. Nor is it merely the Mathematical and 
Physical Sciences that in this manner are edging 
opinion out of the intellectual world ;. for in the train 
of these come the Statistical, the Economic, and the 
Political sciences, which every day are assuming a 
more positive tone than heretofore, and are more ar- 
ticulate than any Religious opinions can be, unless 
sustained by evidence of the most conclusive sort. 
Deductions that are indisputable—principles that have 
a near bearing upon the palpable welfare of the com- 
munity, not less than the higher truths of philosophy, 
tend to disengage the mind from whatever does not 
possess equal or similar recommendations. Men sicken 
of endless surmises, of guesses, of aspirations, of im- 
pressions, of vague hopes. Now it is manifest that 
the Religious Disbelief which is at this time offered 
to us in the stead of Christianity, neither does, nor 
can, in the nature of things, take possession of solid 
ground whereupon it might establish and fortify itself. 
At the very best it is only a pleasing possibility, or 
a probability—a something better than nothing. Itself, 
from a consciousness of its own slenderness, will be 
glad to slip away, unnoticed, from the halls of science. 

This process, sealing the fate of theosophic systems 
of all sorts, does not indeed bear upon the masses of 
the religious community. Happily it does not; but 
it does bear upon the entire community of well-in- 
structed men; and from them the effect which it pro- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 95 


duces spreads itself, outward and downward, until a 
paralysing of the religious sentiment has gone far and 
wide ; and this is what is now taking place, and which 
calls for a fresh recurrence to the very substance of 
Christianity, as the only means that can be trusted to 
for bringing about a Restoration of Belief. 

We must not allow ourselves to imagine that the 
relative position of Watural Philosophy and of Se- 
ligious Philosophy at all resembles what it was at the 
time when Christianity prevailed over philosophy and 
polytheism ; for the theories of that age did not stand 
liable to any such pressure from without, as that 
which now weighs upon their modern representatives. 
The Theology of that epoch was not less approvable to 
reason than was the Physical science of the same time: 
both were surmises only; and, on the whole, fewer 
positive absurdities were comprised in the theology than 
in the sctence of the times. The science of antiquity 
could call scarcely any thing within its compass certaan, 
except its geometry and its applicates ; nor was it itself 
in a progressive condition: it slept on its ground, anc 
was not more likely to dislodge its neighbour, the 
Theology of the same time, than one of the pyramids 
is likely to shove another into the Nile. 

It is an illusion to imagine that any scheme of 
religious belief can now maintain itself in the minds 
of instructed men, under the enormous pressure of the 
compacted mass of our modern sciences. A most mis- 
judging course, therefore, have those writers adopted 
who, of late, have threatened Christianity with ex- 
tinction, which they say is to be effected by the hand 
of the Physical sciences! Do they not see that there 


96 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


isa victim that stands first to be immolated—to wit, 
their own baseless theology ? 

But why may not Christianity itself share this same 
fate? Is it not itself an opinion? This will’ be the 
end of every one of those modifications of Christianity 
which have been devised for the purpose of escaping 
from its extreme consequences, or of mitigating its 
supposed severity, or of winning the favour of those 
who reject it. These varieties of what we must call 
an abated Christianity, ave opinions only; and they 
entirely lack intelligible evidence, as well as substance 
and motive force: they stir no affections; they fix no 
resolves ; they breathe no such energy into the souls 
of menas should strengthen them in a course of real 
sufferings for the Truth’s sake. 

What is it then that may, and that will, hold its 
ground against the ever-increasing momentum of our 
modern philosophy? It is that Curistranrry, whole 
and entire, which, filling as it did the mind and the 
heart of the Harty CHurcH, carried it through its day 
of trial. 

I now therefore reach the point which I have had 
in view in this preliminary Tract: my purpose being 
to explain my meaning in professing to think that a 
Restoration of Belief, at this time, demands that we 
should make our way direct into the heart of the 
question, and reclaim for the Gospel its own grandeur, 
its own beauty, its own boundless compass of Truths 
eternal. 

Hitherto we have confined our attention to the Mar- 
tyr age of Christianity, and have considered how the 
men of that time, while they so “fought the good 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. a1 


fight of faith,” rendered a service to the world, the 
benefits of which can never leave it. But can any one 
persuade himself that this war could have been waged 
on the strength of any of those abated notions of 
Christianity which we are now required to accept in- 
stead of itself? We may be sure it could not have 
been so: we know it was not so. The faith of the 
Martyr Church was undoubting in its quality, and 
ample in its compass. The martyr confronted his 
tormentor, and welcomed death, in the perfect assu- 
rance that the Religion he professed was from Heaven, 
and that it had come into the world attested by 
Miracles. 

Such a persuasion, we may think, cost this martyr 
ltitle; for it was an age (so it is said) of ready belief. 
Men believed on slender evidence, or on none. It is of 
no consequence to dispute this: let it be granted. But 
if the credulity of the age made it easy for the Chris- 
tians of that time to accept a religion professing mira- 
culous attestations, this willingness to believe sprang 
from a feeling, the vividness of which we, in this age, 
can scarcely imagine. The men of the martyr time 
had found in Christianity that which outmeasured all 
miracles; to them the new spiritual existence which 
they had drawn from the Gospel, was a Miracle with 
which those of the Evangelic history seemed in perfect 
accordance. What they felt in themselves, and saw in 
others, of the power of the Gospel, was to them a re- 
surrection, equivalent to the miraculous healing of the 
sick, or raising of the dead. 

But is it not “reasoning in a circle’ thus to believe 
the miracles because the religion is felt to be from 


9 


98 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF, 


Hfeaven, and to believe the religion, because it has 
been attested by miracles? Grant it that this 7s a 
reasoning in a circle, when formally stated; but it 
does not follow that the reasoning is not good in 
its substance. “A misapprehension on this ground has 
too easily been admitted, as well on the side of those 
who have conducted the Christian argument, as with 
those who have impugned it. A sophism, boldly ob- 
truded on the one side, has been timidly dealt with on 
the other. 

The very firmest of our convictions come to us in 
this very same mode,—that is, not in the way of a 
sequence of evidences, following each other as links in a 
chain, and carrying with them the conclusion; but in 
the way of the conerurry of evidences, meeting or 
collapsing in the conclusion. This is not what is called 
“cumulative proof,” nor is it proof derived from the 
coincidence of facts. Those impressions which com- 
mand the reason and the feelings in the most impera- 
tive manner, and which we find it impossible to resist, 
are the result of the meeting of congruous elements: 
they are the product of causes which, though indepen- 
dent, are felt so to fit the one the other, that each, as 
soon as seen in combination, authenticates the other ; 
and in allowing the two to carry our convictions, we are 
not yielding to the sophism which consists in alter- 
nately putting the premises in the place of each other, 
but are recognizing a principle which is true in human 
nature. 

You have to do with one who offers to your eye his 
credentials—his diploma, duly signed and sealed, and 
which declare him to be a Personage of the highest 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 99 


rank. All seems genuine in these evidences. At the 
same time the style and tone, the air and behaviour, of 
this Personage, and all that he says, and what he 
informs you of, and the instructions he gives you, are in 
every respect consistent with his pretensions, as set 
forth in the Instrument he brings with him. It is not 
then that you alternately believe his credentials to be 
genuine, because his deportment and his language are 
becoming to his alleged rank; and then that you yield 
to the impression which has been made upon your feel- 
ings by his deportment, because you have admitted 
the credentials to be true. Your belief is the product 
of a simultaneous accordance of the two species of 
proof: it 1s a combined force that carries conviction, 
not a succession of proofs in line. 

It is from the same force of Congruity, not from a 
catena of proofs, that we receive the most trustworthy 
of those impressions upon the strength of which we act 
in the daily occasions of life; and the same Law of 
Belief rules us also in the highest of all arguments— 
that which issues in a devout regard to Him, by and 
through whom are all things. On this ground, where 
logic halts, an instinctive reasoning prevails, which 
takes its force from the confluence of reasons. 

I have asked it to. be supposed that all we can now 
know of Christianity must be derived from the literary 
materials of the second and third centuries. We now 
go back to those materials. They are various, if not 
of very great absolute bulk: they include contributions 
from the pens of fifty or sixty writers, some of these 
being voluminous, some amounting to fragments only, 
or paragraphs or sentences: but then they are Contri- 


100 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


butions, gathered from all quarters of the Roman 
World. These remains bring to our hearing, as we 
might say, the voices of the dwellers in Palestine, Asia 
Minor, Egypt, North Africa, Gaul, Italy, and Greece : 
what we listen to is a testimony coming in from a large 
surface. These variously derived materials constitute 
So many segments of a great circle, the centre of 
which they will enable us to determine, if we rightly 
bring them to their places: the radii, projected trom 
these segments, meet in a central point. 

A striking unanimity of feeling pervades the mass; 
and yet along with much diversity of style, the temper 
of the men also being every where conspicuous, as well 
as the characteristics of country. _ The subjects treated 
of are various also. Nevertheless, as to the CENTRAL 
OBJECT of which these materials give us our idea, the 
uniformity—the Identity of Image is such, and it is 
of such intensity, that it moulds to its own fashion the 
mind of every ingenuous reader: he cannot refuse to 
yield his reason and imagination too, to this onE IDRA: 
undoubtedly it is every where the same PERSON whom 
he encourters in these scattered memorials of a distant 
time ! 

One of the purposes I have had in view in thus 
bringing forward the persons and events of the Martyr 
age, and in keeping the eye fixed upon that limited 
field, was this, to render more easy a mental effort by 
Which we put out of sight the bearing of Christianity 
upon ourselves, and discharge from our feelings, that 
which haunts our minds, the thought that it may touch 
and disturb ourselves. 

In now summing up, I entreat you to make this 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 101 


effort, and to imagine that Christianity has long ago 
ceased to hold any place of influence in the world; 
and that it stands before us only as a singular develop- 
ment of the religious and moral elements of human 
nature, which has had its season, and which now stands 
on record, an insulated object of historic curiosity. If 
now you will go with me so far, ingenuously grant such 
things as you would not think of denying, if relieved 
from all anxiety as to consequenees, touching our- 
selves. I will therefore suppose you to allow these 
things.— 

—That the Christian communities did, during the 
period that we have had in view, make and maintain 
a protest against the idol-worship of the times, which 
protest, severe as it was in its conditions, at length won 
a place in the world for a purer Theology, and set the 
civilized races free from the degrading superstitions of 
the Greek Mythology. 

—That in the course of this arduous struggle, and 
as an unobserved yet inevitable consequence of it, a 
New Principle came to be recognized, and a New Feel- 
ing came to govern the minds of men, which principle 
and feeling conferred upon the individual man, how- 
ever low his rank, socially or intellectually, a dignity, 
unknown to classical antiquity ; aud which yet must be 
the bases of every moral advancement we can desire, 
or think of as possible. 

—That the struggle whence resulted these two mo- 
mentous consequences, affecting the welfare of men for 
ever, was entered upon and maintained on the ground 
of a definite persuasion, or Belief, of which a Person 


was the object. 
o* 


102 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


—That this belief toward a Person, embraced attri- 
butes, not only of superhuman excellence and wisdom, 
but also of superhuman PoWER and aurTHority. If we 
take the materials before us as our guide, it will not be 
possible to disengage the history from these ideas of 
superhuman dignity. 

If in any instance that can be thought parallel, the 
concentric testimony of many writers conveys the idea 
of a clearly-defined Individuality, such an idea, such a 
conception of a Person, real, and unlike others, 7s con- 
veyed by the evidence now in our hands; and this idea 
indissolubly blends the historic and the supernatural ; 
the two elements of character, as combined, possess a 
FORCE OF CONGRUITY which compels our submission to 
it. Whence then came this Idea? We find it on the 
pages of the early Christian writers in a form so con- 
sentient, and it is conveyed in language so sedate and 
so uniform, that we must believe it to have had onE 
source. 

Much do we meet with in these writers that indicates 
infirmity of judgment or a false taste; yet does there 
pervade them a marked simplicity, a grave sincerity, a 
quietness of tone, when He is spoken of whom they 
acknowledge as Lorp. If there be one characteristic 
of these ancient writings that is uniform, it is the 
calm, affectionate, reverential tone in which the Martyr 
Church speaks of TuE Saviour Curist! 

I am perfectly sure that, if you could absolutely 
banish from your mind all thought of the inferences, 
and the consequences, resulting from your admissions, 
you would not, after perusing this body of Martyr-lite- 
rature, fall into the enormity of attributing the notions 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 103 


entertained of CuRisT, as invested with Divine attri- 
butes, to any such source as “exaggeration,” or ‘‘ ex- 
travdgance,’”’ or to “ orientalism,”’ or ‘enlarged Pla- 
tonism.”’ Exaggeration and inflation have their own 
style: it is not difficult to recognize it. No character- 
istic of thought or language is more obvious. You will 
fail in your endeavour to show that this characteristic 
does attach to the writings in question: and why should 
you make such an attempt? There can be no induce- 
ment to do so, unless it appears to be the only means 
of escaping from some consequence which we dislike. 

But how can it be that a resumption of the inference 
which Christianity brings to bear upon ourselves, should 
affect the admissions we have made while that inferenee 
was held in abeyance? It can never be logical to say, 
“I would not have granted you so much, if I had fore- 
seen what use you would have made of my conces- 
sions.” We must abide by our concessions, if they 
have been reasonably granted, come what may. 

That which these concessions involve is this, that 
unless we at once allow the SUPERNATURAL and the 
DiviNE to have belonged to Christianity at its rise, 
our alternative is to fill up the void by aid of some 
hypothesis which shall give an intelligible account of 
what we know to have followed, wherever it was pro- 
claimed throughout the Roman world. As to any such 
hypothesis (several have been devised) I will not call 
them inadmissible, or insufficient; for to me they are 
wholly unintelligible. 

Unintelligible are these hypotheses, even when looked 
at in the coldest manner from the ground of historical 
criticism. But how revolting do they seem when the 


104 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


course of events through the lapse of centuries, is re 
garded in any manner that might deserve to be called 
philosophic ! 

The dark mysteries that attach to the course of 
human affairs, who shall profess to interpret? No one 
undertakes such an office. Nevertheless we may trace 
single lines of causation with perfect certainty: we may 
follow a clue up from Effects to Causes, and we may 
discover causes which, in their quality and their effi- 
ciency are such as the effect demands. We may safely 
reject, as by instinct, an hypothesis which assumes to 
trace great and extensive effects to causes that would 
be not merely insufficient, but which are utterly incon- 
gruous and unfit. 

Remove from Christianity every thing in it which is 
supernatural and divine, and then the problem which 
we have to do with is this.—A revolution in human 
affairs, in the highest degree beneficial in its import, 
was carried forward upon the arena of the great world, 
by means of the noble behaviour of men who command 
our sympathy and admiration, as brave, wise, and good. 
But this revolution drew the whole of its moral force 
from a Belief, which—how shall we designate it ?—was 
in part an inexplicable illusion; in part a dream, and 
in large part a fraud! ‘This, the greatest forward 
movement which the civilized branches of the human 
family have ever made, took its rise in bewildered 
Jewish brains! Indestructible elements of advance- 
ment to which even infidel nations confessedly owe 
whatever is best and most hopeful within them, these 
elements of good, which were obtained for us at so 
vast a cost, had their source in a congeries of exaggera- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 105 


tions, and in a mindless conspiracy, hatched by chance, 
nursed by imposture, and winged by fanaticism ! 

While I must speak of the Theories that have been 
propounded for solving the problem of Christianity, on 
natural principles, in no measured terms, I would not 
be thought disposed to treat slightly the catalogue of 
difficulties that attach to the Christian argument, at 
specific points. Real are some of. these difficulties ; 
and some are fatal to certain gratuitous assumptions, 
held to on the Christian side: not one of them should 
be inconsiderately dismissed. But not one of them 
touches the Integrity of our Faith; nor can the mass 
entire avail at all to abate the confidence of our per- 
suasion, that the GOSPEL oF CHRIST is from HEAVEN, 
and carries with it an AUTHORITY which time does not 
impair, and which Kternity shall unfold and confirm. 

When a collection of historic materials, bearing upon 
a particular series of events, is brought forward, it will 
follow upon the supposition that those events have, on 
the whole, been truly reported, that any hypothesis the 
object of which is to make it seem probable that no 
‘such events did take place, must involve absurdities, 
which will be more or less glaring. But then, after 
the truth of the history has been established, and when 
the trustworthiness of the materials has been admitted, 
as we proceed to apply a rigid criticism to ambiguous 
passages, we shall undoubtedly encounter a crowd of 
perplexing disagreements; and we shall find employ- 
ment enough for all our acumen, and trial enough of 
our patience, in clearing our path. And yet no amount 
of discouragements, such as these, will warrant our 
falling back upon a supposition which we have already 
discarded as incoherent and absurd, | 


106 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


This then is the present state of the argument as to 
_ Christianity. As to those inroads which of late have 
been made upon the Belief of well-informed Christians, 
they have been effected by urging exceptive cases, and 
by bringing forward instances of historic misplacement, 
or contradiction, affecting the credit of the Inspired 
writers, or by inference, bringing into question the 
Divine authority of the collection of books. On this 
ground the course that should be taken, though it be 
arduous, is straight before us. 

To propound difficulties pressing upon a Christian 
belief, is one thing; but to propose a THEORY that 
might be accepted as affording an intelligible solution 
of the problem which demands to be dealt with, when 
we disallow the claims of Christianity as from Heaven, 
is a very different matter. On this ground, I do not 
see that any advantage has been gained on the side of ° 
Disbelief. Our English disbelief can pretend to nothing 
of originality ; for it is all a copy after the German; 
and yet German theories, though they have broken 
down, in quick succession, at hore, have been im- 
ported, as if still good, and have been done into English 
without a scruple: is there one of these theories that 
is not insufferably absurd ? 

This is as it should be, on the supposition, That 
Christianity is true: the difficulties which adhere to 
the mode of its transmission, may still be insoluble; 
yet to devote primary attention to these would only 
have the effect of giving our thoughts, as well as 
feelings, a wrong direction. A better course is, first to 
assure ourselves of the SUBSTANCE of our BELIEF: we 
may then, with comfort and advantage, meet the ex- 
ceptive argument in its particulars. 


IE 


ON THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT CONTAINED 
IN THE EPISTLES, AND ITS BEARING 
ON THE ARGUMENT. . 


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THE QUESTION OF CHRISTIANITY IS DETERMINABLE. 


WE are told that Christianity must be content to 
take its place along with many indeterminate questions, 
which are, and which should be spoken of among rea- 
sonable men as ‘‘ matters of opinion.” 

I deny this allegation; and I take my position, with 
all humility, yet fearlessly, on this opposite ground, 
namely : that, if those modes of proceeding which have 
been authenticated as good in other cases, are allowed 
to take effect in this case, nothing in the entire round 
of human belief is more infallibly sure than is Christ- 
lanity, when it claims to be—RELIGION, GIVEN To MAN 
BY GOD. 

The same proposition, stated exceptively, may be 
thus worded. Christianity can be held in question 
only by aid of violence done to established principles 
of reasoning, and by contempt of the laws of evidence, 
which in all cases analogous to this are enforced. 

I must not be misinterpreted in this instance. Per- 
sonally, | might take in hand to demonstrate some 
unquestionable theorem in geometry, or to establish 
the most certain of the conclusions in the circle of the 
physical sciences; and I might so mismanage the pro- 
cess as to make those things seem doubtful which, in 
fact, are absolutely certain. The question just now, is 

10 (109) 


110 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


not whether an individual writer succeeds or fails in 
bringing a demonstrable argument to a true conclusion ; 
which may happen or not; but whether the argument 
itself be demonstrable or not. 

Grant me therefore so much liberty as this, at start- 
ing, that is to say—allow me to fail in my present 
honest endeavour, yet WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO° MY 
CAUSE. Grant me this, and I will repay your candour 
with an equivalent. I shall impute no bad motives to 
you as a cover to my chagrin in finding that I do not 
bring you over to my side: I shall not tell you that 
your resistance to my reasoning is nothing but an im- 
moral obduracy, springing from the corrupt wishes of 
an “unregenerate heart.’’ It may be so in fact; but 
that is your affair, not mine. “ Let a man examine 
himself.’ Iam no Inquisitor, nor Father Confessor ; 
nor do I profess to be a spiritual adviser. 

Besides, I am not about to deal in persuasives, or to 
be eloquent and ingenious. I would not lay a hand 
upon this argument at allif I did not find it hard to 
the touch, in every part of it. 

We all perfectly know that the only style proper to 
the exposition of absolute Truth is that which indicates 
no consciousness whatever of the surmised dispositions, 
or adverse feelings, or prejudices, of those who are ad- 
dressed. Euclid deals with every body alike: he knows 
nothing of men’s tempers. It is thus that, in working 
our way toward the mere truth of any mass of facts, 
debated in Court, we listen with breathless attention, 
as if an inspired’ person were about to speak, to the 
evidence of an intelligent and guileless child; for we 
suppose that this child does not know, or knowing, does 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. igia! 


not care, how his statement will tell upon the suit, or 
how it may gratify, or irritate, or appal, the plaintiff, 
or the defendant. This child-testimony is just the 
normal style of a purely scientific treatise; and it 
should serve as sampler to an argument that is pro- 
fessed to be thoroughly honest. 

A style much less inartificial than this has prevailed, 
on both sides, in the argument concerning Christianity. 
How this has come about on the side of Disbelief, 
it does not concern me to inquire. On the side of 
Belief it has had entrance in such ways as these :— 
Perhaps a writer who himself ig sencerely, rather than 
perfectly persuaded, labours, from page to page, under 
the weight of a lurking uneasiness or misgiving, as to 
the goodness of the cause he has taken in hand. Or 
perhaps his amiable temper and his abhorrence of dog- 
matism, impel him to employ so many softnesses of 
language, and to abound so much in uncalled-for con- 
cessions, that the reader loses hold of an argument of 
which the writer is continually losing his hold. Per- 
haps—and this is often the fact—the Christian advo- 
cate, being also a minister of religion, and in that 
capacity having much to do, from week to week, with 
the levity of the human mind, and its perversity, its 
indifference, and its obduracy, and thus forecasting 
the rejection of his argument—unimpeachable as it may 
be, draws back from a peremptory statement of it, lest 
he should risk too much in boldly challenging the 
reader’s submission. He will not pledge Christianity 
where he foresees that he shall find a contumacjous 
resistance. 

Expect no such gentle obliquities in these pages. 


HZ THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. * 


I am not provided with slender conventionalisms of 
this kind :—“ Ought we not to grant ?”—‘“Is it not 
reasonable to suppose ?’”—‘‘ Can we imagine this or 
that ?’—‘‘ Every candid mind will allow; and so 
forth. But then if I abstain from the use both of 
lenitives and of irritating stimulants, I protest against 
every sort of argumentative violence, or polemical 
outrage. What I mean by this protest is this. We 
are about to make our way, in company, through a 
mansion, the doors of which, inner and outer, are 
locked ; but I carry a master-key in my hand. Every 
door opens instantly by application of these fair means. 
You must not then bring with you a crow-bar, or a 
sledge-hammer; as if you would be impatient of the 
use of the key. You must not bring forward, by pre- 
Jerence, a violent supposition to avert an apprehended 
consequence. Let the key take its course wherever it 
suffices, and I am content. 

What then are the conditions of a proposition which 
should be regarded as a “matter of opinion?’ In 
connexion with an argument like this, the vague truism 
will not serve us—That an “ opinion is a proposition 
concerning which even the best informed men may 
differ without imputation, either of wrong motives, or 
of incompetency.”’ On this ground, we need to be 
better guarded against misapplications of the word. 

A proposition concerning facts may be indetermi- 
nable in consequence of some hopeless deficiency of the 
extant evidence which relates to it; or there may 
attach to it an ambiguity in consequence of the occult 
quality of the facts in question. But these indeter- 
minate propositions, fairly assignable, to the region of 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 13) 


opinion, and which are open therefore to endless dis- 
cussion, may belong to one, as well as to another of the 
departments of science, of philosophy, or of criticism. 
It is a mistake, and a prejudice, fertile in errors, to 
imagine that OPINION belongs to one department, and 
CERTAINTY to other departments; as if the honours 
and immunities of an exemption from the tolls of con- 
troversy were the class privilege of this or that aristo- 
cratic science. 

Every science, how absolute soever it may be in its 
methods of proof, has its indeterminate verge—its open 
territory of opinion, so long as it is in a progressive 
condition. Until a science pronounces itself to have 
reached its culminating point, there is always stretch- 
ing out in front of it a region over which adventurous 
speculation takes its course, and whereupon no au- 
thority better than that of opinion has as yet been 
recognized. 

MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE, we are told, is still in 
progress, and, therefore, over this region, even over 
this, or rather in front of it, there hovers the “pillar 
of a cloud’”’—a cloud of promise, leading the way over 
the sands of the infinite, toward further conquests. 

As to the Puysicat Sciences, if what has been 
ascertained within their compass would fill twenty 
folios—the matters next outlying beyond these, and 
which yet are sufficiently defined to be susceptible of 
intelligible statement, would fill a hundred folios. 

As to those branches of science, or of criticism, the 
bearing of which is upon InpivipvaL Facts, and which 
deal with Hvidence—no greater error could be fallen 
into than that of supposing that, in any special sense, 

HB 


114 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


we are here entering upon the trackless region of 
opinion. In truth, as to the relative amount of the 
certain and the uncertain—of the determinate and 
the indeterminate—of that which is open to discussion, 
or is closed against it, and sealed for ever, as infallibly 
sure, those departments upon which evidence (in the 
technical sense of the word) bears, show a decisive ad- 
vantage, as compared with the boundless domains of 
the physical sciences. It is so on two grounds :— 
First, as to the nature of the subjects respectively 
treated of; and secondly, as to the symbols, or medium 
of conveyance, from mind to mind. 

The Physical Sciences, as they relate to the powers, 
properties, functions, of the material world, inorganic 
and organised, touch the mere surface of an abyss that 
is unfathomable. The things concerning which they 
treat are, more or less, occult, and, for a great part, 
are inscrutable, as well by the human senses, as by 
human reason. Besides which, these sciences are com- 
pelled to express themselves in a medium which has 
been borrowed for their use, and which is very im- 
perfectly adapted to the purposes it is now made to 
serve. f 

Mathematical Science has created its own symbols, 
as fast, and as far, as it has needed them: they are 
exempt from all ambiguity; and the truths conveyed 
by them are not attempted to be expressed any further 
than they are thoroughly understood. 

Parallel advantages attach to the various departments 
over which EVIDENCE holds sway; for the facts, with 
few exceptions, are thoroughly intelligible, and the 
medium of conveyance—the language of common life, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 115 


has itself grown out of, or is the spontaneous product 
of this very class of facts. Language is at home when it 
is framed into propositions, concerning individual facts, 
sustained by evidence; but it is doing a work wholly 
strange to itself when it is giving expression to the gen- 
eralizations of Physical Science. 

So long as the Latin language lives, it will always be 
perfectly known what sort of event was intended to be 
recorded when an accomplished nephew affirms, concern- 
ing his learned uncle, that—TInnitens servulis duobus, 
assurrexit, et statim concidit: but when we turn to 
those of this learned writer’s pages in which he tries 
his hand at the scientific explication of natural pheno- 
mena, as of thunder storms (ii. 43) or when Seneca gives 
his theory of earthquakes (Nat. Quest. iv. 5) we feel, 
first that the things spoken of by these great men were 
immensely far beyond their cognizance; and secondly 
that the terms in which they laboured to: convey their 
own confused notions concerning these things are too 
indeterminate to have admitted, either then or now, any 
very certain interpretation. Nor ought we to assume 
very much more in behalf even of our modern scientific 
speculations; for a time may come when a modern lec- 
ture, upon—the theory of voleanoes—even if the HEng- 
lish language should live so long as a thousand years, 
may read like mere jargon; or it may require many 
pages of learned exposition to be spent upon it, before 
it can be known at all what the writer could be think- 
ing of when he talks about ‘‘a disturbance of the equi- 
librium of Galvanic forces,” and the like. The narra- 
tive—the history is just as intelligible now, as it was 
eighteen centuries ago; and it will retain the whole of 


116 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


its bright vivacity to the end of time; so that this one 
entry upon the page of universal history has a better 
chance for eternity than have the pyramids. But as to 
a large portion of our modern Physical Science—every 
century, as it passes, overlays it with a coating of 
obscurity, inasmuch as the theories of each era are 
superseded by those of the next; and inasmuch, too, 
as the terms conveying it, having no real relation- 
ship to the things they intend, lose almost all hold of 
those things in the lapse of time, and cease to be easily 
intelligible. In respect of the events of the Trojan war 
—whether the Iliad be history or fable, the Greek lan- 
guage carries a meaning that is unchangeably certain, 
for ever; but in respect of Aristotle’s astronomy, or of 
Plato’s scheme of the universe, nothing can keep the 
very terms in an intelligible condition, but a running 
commentary—re-issued from age to age. 

Christianity must not then be set off, to take its 
place among indeterminate questions—among “ matters 
of opinion,”’ merely because it stands before us as an 
entry upon the page of history ; for it stands there in 
company with things as sure as the surest theorems of 
geometry. What it teaches—some of those things, may 
be, and are, matters of opinion; but not itself. 

You say “Christianity is an exceptive instance, 
because it comes to us laden with miracles, which no 
evidence can avail to authenticate; and in truth we are 
granting it more indulgence than it can rightfully claim, 
when we concede to it any footing at all upon the 
ground of rational argumentation. Let Christianity rid 
itself of the SUPERNATURAL, and then we will think about - 
It.” 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 17 


You cannot take this course; and my purpose in this 
present Tract is to close it against you. 

Authentic history comes into our hands along with 
a large mass of adventitious matter, which is not of 
itself; and from which it may easily be distinguished 
without any damage to itself, or much disparagement to 
the repute of the original writers. Of this sort are 
those statements of alleged facts for the truth of which 
the historian does not very explicitly pledge himself; 
and concerning which we may easily suppose him to 
have been innocently in error :—also—of this sort are 
his own opinions, his reasonings, and his surmises, which 
are worth just what they may be worth:—also the 
entire mass of indirectly asseverated narratives—mat- 
ters of tradition, matters of national belief, or of popu- 
Jar contemporaneous parlance. 

Now, as to the connection of all such extraneous mat- 
ters with authentic history, I apply to it, for the pur- 
pose of my present argument, this phrase and say—the 
tie between the two masses is that merely of ADHESION ; 
for a removal of the adhesive portion may be effected 
without violence: it may be done without drawing 
blood; and as to the historian himself, he will scarcely 
be conscious of the operation. In how pleasant a man- 
ner have many such removals been effected in the in- 
stance of the “ Father of History,” who, in truth, as a 
veracious collector of facts, enjoys better repute among 
us now, than he did a century ago. 

But there is another bond of union, connecting a 
body of history with what it brings with it, which implies 
more than mere adhesion, and which must be regarded 
as implying a connexion of CoHESION. Wherever the 


118 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


tie is of this kind, an attempted separation of the two 
masses touches the life, and we should look well to the 
consequences before we set about it. J-affirm that, in 
the instance of the canonical documents of Christianity, 
the connection of the historic mass with the superna- 
tural, is a case of cohesion, and that it is absolutely 
indissoluble. 

When an instance of this sort presents itself, one of 
three courses may be taken: that is to say, the three 
courses are hypothetically eligible; which of them is 
actually so can be known only upon inquiry. 

1st, We may wholly reject the conglomerate—the 
history and the miracle together, as being manifestly 
destitute of any intrinsic value. 

2d, We may apply force—retaining the simply his- 
toric mass, and throwing off the mass cohering. But 
when this is done the patient dies :—that is to say, the 
credit of the writer, or in other words, his vztalety as a 
writer is gone, even although much that he has recorded 
may still be quite true: we have slain the man; but if 
he carried any thing about him that is valuable, we take 
it to ourselves. 

3d, We may accept at once the simply historic mass, 
and that which coheres with it, as being both true, and 
both historic. 

The course of argument, therefore, in relation to 
Christianity must be this : —In behalf of it, it should be 
shown, first—That the alliance of the historical and the 
supernatural which it offers to our view is not an instance 
of mere adhesion; but of indissoluble cohesion. 

We must then show that, unless violence is to be done 
to every principle which is applicable to the occasion, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 119 


the conglomerate cannot be cast aside, as unsubstan- 
tial, or as destitute of value; inasmuch as the histori- 
eal portion is of indisputable validity :—it is sure, if 
any thing be sure. 

But no endeavours, fairly made, can avail to disjoin 
the supernatural, in this case, from the historical. In 
other terms stated—within the compass of the canoni- 
cal documents of Christianity the supernatural is one, 
_ and the same as the historical. The two can be counted 
two, by hypothesis only. Moreover the two elements 
—if they be two—coalesce into one mass, not merely 
by cohesion, of which just now I am to speak; for they 
are still more intimately blended by the force of con- 
| GRUITY, to which I have already (page 98) made allu- 
sion, and of which, in another Tract, I shall have much 
to say. Whether or not the alleged cohesion of the 
historic and the supernatural should be incontestibly 
established, the connexion of Congruity, laying hold as 
it does of the firmest of our convictions, stands entire ; 
and it is such as has availed, and will always avail, with 
the mass of unsophisticated minds, to ensure an un- 
clouded belief. 

The ground of an argumentation, such as is now in 
hand, has been gradually narrowing throughout the 
course of the present half-century. It is mainly the in- 
dustry of adverse criticism that has thus cleared the way 
before us; or more fairly stated, it has been the assiduous 
antagonism of Christian, and of Anti-christian scholar- 
ship, working with unwearied zeal at the same problems, 
that has achieved this service. On the one part, an 
attenuated ingenuity has spent its last atom of gluten 
in floating out threads which might perchance catch 


120 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


and detain, in behalf of Scepticism, this or that portion 
of the apostolic remains. On the other part, an over- 
done scrupulosity, and a superfluous candour, has em- 
ployed itself in loosening the hold of these films—one 
by one. 

The upshot of all this industry is just this, that, after 
two or three ambiguous cases have been allowed for, 
the apostolic antiquity of the several portions of the 
New Testament canon is out of the question; and that 
as to the Epistles (with which alone I am at present 
concerned) the genuineness and authenticity of these 
writings rests upon evidence one-tenth part of which has 
been customarily admitted as sufficient, in any parallel 
instance, on the field of classical literature. It must 
be a sickly affectation, or it must indicate a feebleness of 
the reasoning faculty, to speak in any other tone than 
this of the result of those critical explorations of which 
the Canonical Epistles have been the subject, in the 
course of the last fifty or sixty years. 

As to any argument with which, just now, I am con- 
cerned, [I should be content if there were handed over 
to me, only so many as four or five of the Apostolic 
Hpistles—or even fewer, as undoubtedly genuine. 
Allow me any where good anchor-hold in the roadstead 
of apostolicity, and it 1s enough. It is enough, not 
merely because these fewer authentic documents by 
themselves carry an inference from which we can 
never escape; but because, as I shall show, a spu- 
vious writing, which is so like the genuine as hardly 
to be distinguished from it, will bear the weight of 
my present arguinent almost as well as if it were 
genuine. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 121 


Then, after some such spurious or ambiguous docu- 
ment has yielded its available amount of evidence, in a 
direct manner, it serves a further purpose in giving 
support directly to the genuine. The genuine shows 
the “ Hall-mark ;”’ but the spurious, or the doubtful, 
carries a mark that is less authentic; and the com- 
parison of the two “stampings” affords the ground of 
a new confidence, as to that which already we hold to 
be infallible. 

With our English straightforwardness about us, and 
our dislike of the practice of catching at straws for the 
purpose of keeping a desperate hypothesis above water, 
we take in hand a sample of German hypercritical cap- 
tiousness. It runs “in this way :—‘ throughout our 
Kpistle,” says the critic, “we find several words, and 
some combinations of words, that are not Pauline ; 
they indicate another mind, and another hand. The 
forger, it must be confessed, has very nearly hit’— 
what? Paul’s style !—but not quite: he has done his 
work cleverly; but yet he has betrayed himself in not 
fewer than half-a-dozen places. 

This Pauline style is then—AN HISTORIC REALITY— 
and as such I want nothing more; it is distinct, and 
distinguishable, by its individual characteristics, which 
are of so marked a kind that, while they held out a 
temptation to the ancient forger, they are of so pecu- 
liar a sort that modern critics are sure of their scent 
whenever an imitation is under inquiry. It is just 
thus that a practised collector of ancient coins apphes 
his tongue to a specious “‘ Cleopatra,” or to a false 
“Ptolemy ;” for he knows the taste of the genuine 
Egyptian mintage too well to be so easily imposed 

11 


122 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF, 


upon :—the colour of the rust is nothing. The Critic 
takes a bearing upon that which is genuine (implicitly, 
if not explicitly,) for the purpose of discarding the 
spurious. But I take a position even upon the spu- 
rious, that, from that vantage-ground, I may learn to 
trust myself with more confidence to the genuine. As 
to any one particular, of the twenty-one epistles of the 
Canon, the question of its genuineness and authenticity 
need not be entered upon until some critic, competent 
to the task, comes forward, in seriousness, and with 
copiousness of proofs, to affirm that all of them are 
forgeries. This will not be attempted; or if it be at- 
tempted, those who engage in such an enterprise must 
first make a clear field by erasing every remains of 
antiquity—profane and religious, anterior to the Nor- 
inan conquest. 

Nor do we now touch any question as to the alleged 
INSPIRATION of these epistles, or of any other books of 
the Canon. We are often told that we timidly hold up 
this “‘ Inspiration” as a screen, lest the documents of 
our faith should come to be dealt with severely, in the 
mode that is proper to historic criticism. Only let this 
Historic Severity take its free course, and Disbelief 
will be driven from its last standing-place. It is my 
perfect persuasion that, in the now actual position of 
the Christian argument, the doctrine of the Insprra- 
TION of the Canonical books is of more importance, in 
a logical sense, to Disbelief than it is to Belief. 

If every one of the Canonical books of the New 
Testament—every one of those in behalf of which 
Inspiration is alleged, had perished, and if nothing 
were now before us but the uninspired documents of 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF, 12338 


Christianity—(those of the second century) I must still 
be a Christian, although I should often be at a loss 
-as to the single items of my Creed. But now if the 
Canonical writings—Inspiration not considered, were 
dealt with in the historic mode, without prejudice 
or favour, Disbelief would wither like the grass of 
the tropis. 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE BOOKS OF THE NFW TESTA- 
MENT, IN RELATION TO THIS ARGUMENT. 


THE historic and the supernatural (the miraculous) 
are connected in the books of the New Testament in 
the way of ConEsion, not of adhesion merely; but 
then this cohesion takes effect in a very different 
manner in different instances. ‘These differences it is 
important to take account of; and it suggests a clas- 
sification of the canonical documents accordingly. The 
Twenty-seven books take their places, when regarded 
in this particular aspect, under three heads; and thus 
we have— 

I. Those, throughout the substance of which the 
historic base blends itself with the supernatural in the 
way of explicit and circumstantial narrative. These 
of course are the Four Gospels, and the Acts of the 
Apostles. 

II. Those books in which, once or oftener, some 
explicit affirmation of the supernatural occurs; but 
which contain no circumstantial narrative of miracu- 
lous events. Of this sort are Seven of the Epistles. 

III. Those in which we find no affirmation of this 
sort, and throughout which the supernatural makes no 
other appearance than that which is implicitly (though 
necessarily) conveyed in the primary article of the 

(124) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 425 


Christian profession—namely, the Resurrection of 
Christ. This necessary implication always under- 
stood, the writer affirms nothing that is miraculous. 
As many as Fourteen of the Epistles come under this 
category. 

In relation to the present argument the Apocalypse 
does not take a place in our arrangement. 

The facts then which, under this aspect, stand 
before us, in outline, are these—-That, out of the six 
and twenty constituents of the Canon, Fourtnen are 
(as I here presume to call them) NoN-SUPERNATURAL, 
saving only that one constant element, expressed or 
implied in every Christian writing—the Resurrection 
of Christ. Of the Twelve remaining books, Seven 
Kpistles, besides this universal implication, distinctly 
affirm the fact of a miraculous agency of which the 
writer professes to have personal cognizance. F ivr, 
or, if the Gospel of Luke and the Acts be reckoned 
as one—Four, books not merely allege this agency, 
but narrate instances of miracles; and so relate 
them that the natural and supernatural constitute 
a continuous tissue, not resolvable into two, except 
by violence. 

It is natural to place these three classes in the order 
here assigned to them; hut the ldogzeal order, or that 
in which they offer themselves most conveniently for 
a rigid scrutiny, which would end in a peremptory 
conclusion, is just the contrary. I therefore begin 
with the Fourteen Epistles which, liable to the con- 
dition already mentioned, are here designated as the 
NON-SUPERNATURAL. ‘These are—The Epistles, to the 
Ephesians—to the Colossians—to the Philippians— 

Lhe 


126 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the two to the Thessalonians—the two to Timothy, 
the Epistles to Titus, and to Philemon, and the 
five Catholic Epistles of St. James, St. John, and 
St. Jude. 

This significant fact, that more than half of the 
authentic documents of a Religion boldly resting itself 
upon miraculous attestations, contain no explicit allu- 
sion to such events, claims our strict attention. Ata 
glance this fact is susceptible of opposite interpreta- 
tions; but its true meaning will be seen in attending 
to the particular instances in which it appears. 

Manifestly, this tri-partition of the Canonical books 
is founded upon no zntrinsie difference distinguishing 
them ; but is accidental merely. The difference has no 
other reality than that which attaches to these compo- 
sitions in their bearing upon the argument just now in 
hand. It is to the same writer that we attribute five 
of the books of the second class, and nine of those 
belonging to the third; and between those of the second 
and those of the third, there is discernible no difference 
of doctrine, or of tone, or of moral intention. Yet the 
one circumstance which constitutes the reason of this 
present classification is itself explicable, and it consists 
perfectly with our assumption of the historic reality 
of the Christian documents. That fourteen out of 
twenty-one epistles, should contain no affirmation con- — 
cerning miracles, does not imply that miracles were 
not alleged by the teachers of Christianity ;—for they 
are alleged, boldly and clearly ; but it quite excludes 
the inference that these teachers were men of heated 
minds whose element was the world of wonders, and 
who would always be labouring to propagate the same 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 127 


feeling, and to keep alive a species of excitement which 
is found to be peculiarly grateful to the mass of man- 
kind. This fact, moreover, under the conditions which, 
as we shall see, attach to it, excludes the supposition 
that the preachers of the Gospel were accustomed to 
indulge themselves in the supernatural where it was safe 
to do so; but that they cautiously abstained from any 
allusion to it where there might be a risk of provoking 
scrutiny and contradiction; the very contrary of this 
is that which presents itself. 

The writers of these Fourteen Hpistles—this is con- 
spicuously evident—were neither striving to bolster up 
their own confidence, by incessant references to miracles ; 
nor endeavouring to sustain the constancy of their con- 
verts, by any such means. Their habit was—we do 
not infer this, but see it—to allege miracles whenever 
there was direct occasion so to do—and not otherwise ; 
and therefore, though they make this allegation in 
Seven Epistles, they do not make it in fourteen. When 
an Apostle writes to his intimates—his colleagues, and 
to those whose belief was a tranquil assurance, like his 
own—not a syllable of the supernatural meets the eye. 
When he defies his adversaries, and rebukes a set of 
faulty converts, he takes his stand upon miracles; but 
even then a word of allusion to them is enough. | 

The Fourteen Epistles that do not refer to the super- 
natural are attributed to four writers, namely, St. Paul, 
St. John, St. Jude, and St. James. The temperament 
of these four writers is as diverse as can be imagined, 
and the style of each has no resemblance to that of the 
others. This dissimilarity of character bemg conspicu- 
ous (and it has often been insisted upon) the fact that 


128 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the four are brought thus into company on the ground 
of their abstinence from the supernatural, in these 
epistles, carries the more meaning; for it is evident 
that this abstinence did not draw its reasons from the 
dispositions of an individual writer, but from an in- 
fluence belonging to the Religion they professed, and 
which bore alike upon the four whenever the circum- 
stances under which they wrote were similar, or similar 
in this particular respect. It has been customary to 
say—and we may always say it confidently—that God 
works no miracles without cause sufficient: and now it 
appears that these His servants make no mention of 
miracles—without cause sufficient. As in the Christian 
dispensation the supernatural was measured out by the 
necessity of the occasion, so are the allusions to it re- 
stricted within the limits of a rigid frugality. 


St. JUDE. 


I Take in hand the Epistle of St. Jude as if it were 
the solitary extant contemporaneous document of that 
Christianity of which I have seen and heard so much, 
while traversing the Roman world in the times of 
Trajan and the Antonines. 

This Epistle is one of those which, through the 
caution of the ancient Church, took its place among 
the drmeysueva—the “controverted.” Not that. its 
antiquity was questioned, or its authenticity, in any 
such sense as is material to my present argument. The 
writer does not call himself an Apostle; and the 
Church hesitated to admit the claims which had been 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 129 


advanced in his behalf in this respect. Besides, such 
was the religious feeling of tht Christian body, and of 
the critics of the third century, that because Jude, in 
two places, quotes, as genuine, two books that were 
held to be spurious, this apparent error was judged to 
be incompatible with his repute as an INSPIRED WRITER. 
Although an easy supposition, namely, that St. Jude 
cites, not those spurious writings, but some then extant 
remains, afterwards incorporated in the spurious books, 
might have obviated this objection, it so far had in- 
fluence as to keep this Epistle under a cloud until some 
time in the fourth century. But with no ambiguities of 
this kind have I any thing to do at present. That the 
Epistle is a writing of the Apostolic, or very early 
times, has not been reasonably questioned. 

What this means is just this—that if those rules of 
historical criticism which prevail in this department— 
the department to which the instance rightfully belongs 
—are allowed to take effect, then the Epistle of St. 
Jude is a genuine document of the Christianity of the 
first century. Yet, even if it were nothing better than 
a good imitation of such documents, promulgated in 
the Apostolic age, it would serve my purpose as well. 

The energy, the simplicity, the gravity, and the 
moral tone proper to a genuine writing, are manifestly 
the characteristics of this. It has, too, a graphic force 
and a rotundity peculiar to it. Look to the Greek of 
this epistle, and you recognize the style of a writer 
who has a great command of tropical phraseology, and 
whose cumulation and condensation together indicate 
an intensity of feeling, which yet is governed in the 
manner that is usual with men in places of authority, 


130 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


who, while they write with power, are careful not to 
compromise their position by a lax diffuseness. While 
they show a stern countenance toward offenders, they 
preserve the calm aspect of paternal love towards the 
better sort. 

But the document in hand carries a meaning of a | 
more definite kind. 

Whether or not we choose to regard an affirmation 
of the supernatural as a dead weight which must sink 
any writing in which it occurs, no such weight attaches 
to the Epistle in hand. Indirectly, as I have said, 
the reality of the primary miracle of the Christian pro- 
fession is implied; but the writer claims no power of 
working miracles for himself; nor does he allude to any 
occurrences of this class. There does not present 
itself, therefore, any hypothetical difficulty which 
should bar the way of the inference I have in view. 

Thus far I suppose myself to know absolutely nothing 
concerning Christianity beyond that which I have 
gathered, by some industry, from the writers—Christian 
and Heathen—of the period specified (p. 39.) What 
I have so learned stands far out of the reach of con- 
troversy or contradiction. - No scholarlike man would 
dream of attempting to bring the main facts into 
question. This various and voluminous evidence is, as 
I have said (pp. 56 and 104) a body of testimonies 
gathered from a surface geographically more extended 
than the Roman empire; and when thus regarded, the 
broadly expanded mass is seen to take a concentric 
bearing upon that which must have been the common 
source of the whole. If indeed nothing belonging to 
that central point had come down to us, we must have 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. ToL 


surmised concerning it as well as we could; but if 
only a single fragment belonging to it reaches us, then, 
instead of vague surmises, we look to it in the war- 
rantable expectation of finding that this piece, small as 
it may be, will show a true congruity with the mass 
' which remotely bears upon it. The mason’s chiseling 
upon this key-stone will serve to identify 1t as belonging 
~ to the arch. 

Take notice then of my purpose, which is this :—in 
the course of an inductive scrutiny of the various ma- 
terials in my hand, I am getting together, and bringing 
to their respective places, the well-squared stones of a 
firm historic structure, to which structure, as I shall 
afterward show, the supernatural so coheres that the 
two elements can never be sundered; or can never be 
fairly sundered. 

The community addressed in this Epistle was of some 
standing, for it had its stated observances, its ayana., 
and there had been time for it not merely to develop its 
own proper qualities, but to draw toward itself, as a 
new and fervent religious body always does, men of 
cloaked purposes, who had found in it the means of 
gratifying their ambition, their cupidity, or their licen- 
tiousness. Yet this mischief, the constant attendant as 
itis of a remarkable religious movement, was a recent 
occurrence; for the writer, a man in authority, upon 
gaining knowledge of it had “hastened” to throw him- 
self in the way of its further spread—zacay onovdxy 
MOLOVME,OS. 

These evil-purposed men had snatched at a doctrine 
which, when it is grossly apprehended by men of a 
sensual temper, seems to screen all vices. We descry 


apo ° THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


in this instance the distinguishing feature of the 
Christian system (already known to us) that is to say, 
the free remission of sins, of which even. the most pro- 
fligate are invited to avail themselves. It is not against 
the immorality of the wide world that the writer in- 
velghs ; but against that of those who had abused a 
Christian profession in this very manner. This abuse 
had become rank in a degree to which seasons of perse- 
cution supply an effective remedy. The season of 
general persecution had not, as it seems, yet com- 
meneed; for if it had, these vultures would have flown. 

The Church of the martyr age we found in the atti- 
tude of a moral force, struggling to maintain a difficult 
position, closely beleaguered on every side by gross 
errors of belief, by abounding immoralities, and by 
virulent animosities. In the course of this struggle the 
Church was unconsciously coming into the possession 
of that fundamental .principle of genuine morality— 
the sense of individual responsibility toward God. This 
germ of whatever is good it brought out into act for 
itself, and then passed it down for the benefit of man- 
kind in all time following. But we naturally look for 
the rudiments of so remarkable a revolution in the ori- 
ginal documents of the religion which gave it to the 
world, and now it comes under our eye in this Epistle. 
At a later time it was constancy in the endurance of 
sufferings for the truth’s sake that had thrown the 
Christian upon his individual responsibility. In this 
earlier age it was constancy in resisting the insidious 
advances of false doctrine, and of specious immoralities 
that had availed to the same end; and this constancy, 
as well in its later as in its earlier forms, had been 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 133 


animated by the same prospect of immortal blessedness. 
Thus are these springs of the moral life mingled in the 
closing injunctions of the Epistle. Towards delinquents 
a compassionate discrimination was to be used—the in- 
dividual demerits of each being considered (verses 22, 
23); while those who stood firm were reminded of 
their dependence every moment upon the help of God; 
and this caution is conveyed in terms which, within the 
compass of five lines, concentrate what is most affecting 
in Theology and in Ethics. As to this majestic dox- 
ology, we should lose more in losing the: truths it con- 
veys than in consigning to the abyss of oblivion the 
entire body of classical philosophy. ‘‘ To Him who is 
able to guard you unfallen, and to make you stand 
before the glory (of his presence) unblamable in joy— 
to the one God, our Saviour, by Jesus Christ our Lord, 
(be ascribed) glory and majesty, might and authority, 
ag well now as throughout all ages. Amen.” 

Here then we find in this Epistle, exempt from 
every exception, reasonable, or unreasonable, A CEN- 
TERING-STONE of that structure which, in the age of 
the Antonines, had arched over the Roman world, 
from East to West, from North to South. 


Sr. JAMES. 


To wHicu of the persons of this name, mentioned in 
The Gospels, this Epistle should be attributed, it is of 
no moment to inquire; nor is it material to know any 
thing more concerning it than that it is of very early 
date; of which fact, besides the references to it by 

12 


134 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


Clement, Hermas, and others—the place it holds in the 
ancient Syriac version is sufficient evidence. 

Notwithstanding a single passage of ambiguous im- 
port (v. 14, 15) I do not hesitate to class this epistle 
along with the non-supernatural. The writer, among 
miscellaneous injunctions, gives one which by no means 
hecessitates the supposition of what should be called a 
miraculous agency :—miracles were incidental and ex- 
traordinary (in their very import) but in this place a 
customary occurrence is referred to, and the reason of 
the course which the writer advises to be taken is 
drawn froma general truth, namely, the efficacy of 
prayer. 

The force and vivacity of this composition, besides the 
comparative purity of the Greek, give it a very marked 
character. It resembles, except in a few phrases, none 
of those with which, in the canon of the New Testa- 
ment, it 1s associated. The writer gives us a distinct 
idea of himself, as well as a portraiture of the persons 
with whom he had to do, which is specially graphic. 
The indications of historic reality stand out, one might 
say, with a harsh prominence on every paragraph of 
this Epistle. Nothing here has been smoothed down: 
there has been no rane of the first draught with a 
view to secure consistency, or to avoid giv ing offente. 
The writer must have known that his officials position, 
and the weight of his personal character, could secure 
for him a hearing, how unacceptable soever might be 
the rebukes w bias it was his duty to administer 

To no community could these remonstrances, and 
these reprehensions, and these pungent advices seem 
flattering. They might be submitted to, but they could 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 135 


not be welcomed. The writer uses the tone of a man 
in authority—in office; yet he does not labour to vin- 
dicate that authority; nor does he go about to sustain 
the pretensions of a sacerdotal class; he falls in with 
no prejudices; he flatters no overweenings of national 
or sectarian self-love. The epistle bears upon its sur- 
face the str aightforward purpose of a firmly constituted 
and fearless mind, opposing itself at once to open 
abuses and to specious pretexts. Nothing that is 
sinister—nothing deeper than the resolute intention of 
one who is jealous for truth and virtue, can any where 
be discerned among the sententious clauses of this com- 
position. 

We are free to take it for what it seems: to take it 
in any other sense we are not free. We are no more 
at liberty so to do than we should be to put an ill con- 
struction upon the words or conduct of a neighbour, 
against whom we have not a shadow of unfavourable 
evidence. ‘This writer is not a man of meditative turn: 
his, modes of thinking are fixed; his views, so far as 
appears from the epistle, are limited; his habits and 
feeling show the. practical, not the abstract tendency. 
In temper he is firm; or even severe; but yet he is 
discriminative; and, toward the well-behaved he is 
indulgent and loving. He resents subterfuges, he is 
indignant at wrong. He does not work his way, by 
reasoning toward a conclusion, but Veizes it with viva- 
city, by a moral instinct. His logic is of this kind— 
“Talk as you may—profess what you please, I know 
of only one sort of piety that can be acceptable before 
God, our Father; which shows itself in visiting the 
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and in Mao niee 


136 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


itself unspotted from the (pollutions of the) world.— 
Whatever your theology may be, the wisdom which I 
acknowledge to be genuine and heavenly, is_ pure, : 
peacefully disposed, gentle, easy to be persuaded, 
abounding in works of mercy, and in fruits of good- 
ness:—it is impartial, and aborrent of disguises.”’ 

Such is the writer; but the epistle gives a brightly 
historic reflexion of the manners, tempers, usages, of 
the community, or class of persons that is addressed. 

But now shall not a discreet Christian apologist hesi- 
tate before he lifts the curtain? He will do so if what 
he is in search of, in antiquity, is a factitious image, 
or a fabulous social condition: not if he be in quest of 
hard historic realities: not if it be his ambition to 
drive off from the Christian precincts the shadows, the 
myths, the quaint unintelligible hypotheses of German 
origin, in the mists of which English Disbelief is just 
now finding a momentary refuge. 

Even if the writer of this Epistle had not prefixed to 
it the conventional phrase which designates his nation, 
‘“‘ the twelve tribes of the Dispersion,’’ we should have 
had no difficulty in recognising our. company. It is 
certain that, on this occasion, we have entered the an- 
cient Synagogue. ‘The noisy congregation around us 
has become professedly Christian; but in behaviour, 


9? 


and in moral costume, they are Jews, more than Chris- 
tians. ‘They are persons who have not undergone that 
melting down of the soul which took place in the in- 
stance of educated Polytheists who, when they “‘ turned 
from dumb idols to serve the living God,” and when 
they awoke to the hope of immortality, passed under 
the transformations of a new existence. As to these 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 137 


synnagogue converts, they had given up one religious 
persuasion, and they had taken up another. They had 
yielded the one point of controversial difference be- 
tween the Synagogue and the Church; but they had 
retained entire, their factious spirit, and their wrang- 
ling habit of discourse. They were expert in the twists 
and sophistries of casuistical evasion: they were ever 
ready to cry “ Corban,” when appealed to on the ground 
of mercy and piety. Between the obliquities of their 
Jewish training, and the simplicity of the Christian 
system, a perpetual conflict was going on. That char- 
acteristic of the community of which we get a glimpse 
in this graphic epistle, is—moral restlessness—a want 
of equilibrium—a want of repose, an utter want of 
consistency. One hears the clatter and the jars of a 
discordant assemblage of men who, as yet, have ad- 
justed nothing in their own principles or motives. In 
a word—and it is a word full of historic meaning, we 
have stepped into the Synagogue ! 

These Jewish converts were skilled in those perverse 
reasonings, by means of which men are wont to throw 
the blame of their many failures upon God (i. 18). 
They were glib in speech, (i. 19) lagging in conduct ; 
prompt to dictate, (iv. 1) slow to learn. Ready to 
cringe before the rich, (ii. 2) backward in administer- 
ing to the needs of the poor, (ii. 15). Such was the 
wild license of the Jewish tongue, that the writer ex- 
hausts all figures that can be applicable to the subject, 
in labouring to set forth its unbridled excesses: a 
tongue, the incendiary intensity of which declared its 
rise in the nether furnace; a tongue, in one hour, tak- 
ing its part in # liturgy, in the next pouring forth 

A2* 


138 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


curses! These apt scholars of the Devil (iii. 15) slan 
derers, like their teacher, (iv. 2) are dealt with in a 
way which nothing could sustain but the intrepidity of 
the most assured virtue and piety. We shall presently 
find the very same men (the likenesses are not to be mis- 
taken) treated by another chief of the new religion, in 
his own style; but with the same fearlessness. 

Critics have differed as to the country of the writer. 

It is of little moment to settle this point;—of none 
just now. The people of the synagogue are much the 
same folk, wherever we find them. They were so, not 
merely from the prevalence and decisiveness of their 
national dispositions and habits; but because the indi- 
viduals composing these congregations were migratory, 
carrying with them, of course, their peculiarities. Even 
now, in this synagogue in which we have taken our 
stand, there are some who have lately arrived from the 
ends of the earth; and there are also some who, at the 
moment when the sun goes down, will be busy at home, 
strapping their packages, and preparing to depart, at 
dusk, or at dawn, having already whispered to them- 
selves the words reported by this writer—“ To-day, or 
to-morrow, we will go into such a city, and continue 
there a year, and buy and sell and get gain.” 

The precise date, too, of this epistle is controverted ; 
yet, apart from reasons of a critical kind, and which 
favour a very early date, that peculiar moral condition 
of indeterminate conflict, between Jewish tempers, and 
Christian principles, which this epistle brings so vividly 
before us, must, in its nature, have belonged only to a 
transition period; and we know, in fact, that while Ju 
daism speedily collapsed upon itself, Christianity soor 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 139 


ceased to wear this party coloured garb; and every 
where showed its own mind, as the very contrary of 
Judaism. This epistle would not comport with any 
state of things of later date than the Jewish war. 
There is one point of accordance between the epistle of 
St. Jude and that of St. James which we should not fail 
to notice. I have said, (p. 101) that a remarkable uni- 
formity of tone characterizes those passages in the writ- 
ings of the martyr age in which the personal attributes 
of the Saviour Curist are alluded to; consequently, 


this prime feature of the Christianity of the second 
and third centuries should show itself in every docu- 


ment bearing date in the apostolic times. And so it does 
in these two instances, and the fact is the more observable 
because, in neither of them, is the theological element 
distinctly brought forward. The one writer speaks with 
a calm solemnity of Him whom some, by their immo- 
ralities, had impiously denied—‘“ our only Lord God 
‘and Saviour Jesus Christ ;”’ and the faithful are exhor- 
ted to ‘look for” the “mercy ”’ of this SAVIOUR, “ unto 
eternal life.” The other writer, in the same tone, and 
with the same allusive brevity, speaks of the Christian 
profession, as the faith of the ‘“ Lord Jesus Christ—(the 
Lord) of Glory.” And he denounces those who, while 
persecuting the followers of the Saviour, were accus- 
tomed to ‘“‘blaspheme that worthy name.” 

These two epistles, then, the historic reality of which 
stands out of the reach of legitimate scepticism, and 
which possess, in themselves, a peculiarly well-defined 
character, constitute—apart—and together—a mass, in- 
destructible in itself, and equal to any stress which—to 


140 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


revert to my masonic allusion, I may have occasion here- 
after to throw upon it. 

But suppose that, on the question of the genuineness 
and authenticity of these epistles, our critical evidence 
falls short, by a little, of irresistible demonstration. 
This imagined faultiness of proof (which in fact cannot 
be alleged) may indeed touch the question of the place 
that should be assigned to them in the.Canon of In- 
spired Scripture; but it scarcely affects at all, if at 
all, my present argument. 

I take this Epistle of St. James, marked as it is with 
the inimitable characteristics of genuineness—as much 
so as any literary remains of antiquity that might be 
placed by the side of it. As to its antiquity, all shadow 
of doubt is removed, not merely by the quotations of it 
by the early Fathers, as a then well known writing ; 
but by its presence in the Syriac version, in which the 
epistle of St. Jude does not appear. These very early 
Translators found it already possessed of an accredited 
repute as an Apostolic work; and as such it had been 
ordinarily read in the churches using this language. 

But let us imagine that these ancient Translators, and 
that the Eastern Churches generally, had misjudged 
the case; in fact, that they had been imposed upon— 
the epistle, although spurious, bearing so much the sem- 
blance of an apostolic work that they-did not detect 
the fraud. The forger—the imitator—the compiler, by 
whatever epithet we should designate him, so well under- 
stood the manner of the apostolic teaching, and he knew 
so well what would be looked for by Christian readers 
in any composition purporting to come from an apos- 
tolic man, that he could expect nothing but instantane- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 141 


ous detection if he admitted into his copy so much as 
one line of ambiguous quality, as to its bearing upon 
morals. This imagined imitator of the apostolic style, 
after looking about him for samples, in order to choose 
the one which should scem the most characteristic, and 
the least likely to awaken suspicion, makes this sort of 
selection :—He writes an epistle, in the assumed name 
of James, for which he hopes to obtain currency among 
Jewish converts throughout the world, which epistle 
breathes an uncompromising moral intensity, and 
abounds in sharp rebukes of that sanctimoniousness 
which was the prominent characteristic of the Jewish 
people ? 

What does this mean but that the well-known apos- 
tolic style—the style which an imitator would think it 
the safest to attempt, was that of men who, with the 
courage of God’s own prophets, were wont to risk every 
thing in behalf of the truth and virtue? Ido not see 
then that we should gain much on the side of Disbelief 
by suggesting doubts as to the genuineness of the epis- 
tles of the Canon: better let them pass at once for gen- 
uine and authentic. Apostolic Christianity, if looked 
at through its own crystal, shows the clear brightness 
of Heaven:—looked at in the copper speculum of spu- 
rious writings, it carries a resplendence, not sensibly 
dimmed. ) 


St. JOHN. 
The First Epistle of St. John stands among the 


oporoyovueva, of the ancient Church, the genuineness and , 
authenticity of which are copiousiy attested. The second 


142 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF, 


and the third were questioned; but these are of no 
moment in relation to my argument, any further than 
this—that, if imitations, the absence in them of any 
allusion to miracles shows that this omission was custo- 
mary in the Christian writings of the time. 

There is not a word or a phrase occurring in the first 
Epistle which could suggest the idea that Christianity 
had made its way in the world by the aid of miracu- 
lous attestations—the one foundation miracle always 
supposed. Yet at several points, throughout it, an 
allusion to miracles would have seemed fit and natural; 
especially where an appeal is made, to that assurance, 
of being in the possession of truth which the writer 
affirms to be the privilege of Christians. The appeal is 
to an interior vitality, not to external demonstrations 
(ii. 14, 19, iv. 16, v.10). The appeal is to a moral 
test, not to the supernatural (iv. 20). |The witnessing 
on earth (v. 8) omits the witnessing by ‘signs and won- 
ders.” The ripened Christianity which this writer 
spreads out before us, had no intrinsic alliance with any 
such attestations; which belonged to the outworks of 
the New Religion. | 

The writer last cited was seen to be in conflict, right 
and left, with the first inburst of rancid Judaism; but 
at the time when the epistle now before us was given 
to the Christian community, this source of trouble was 
just passing off to the distance: the disturbers had dis- 
covered their mistake in thinking to connect themselves 
with the rising body; and they had retired. “‘ They went 
out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had 
been of us, they would have remained with us.”’ (ii. 19.) 
The Christian body had at length become homogeneous; 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 143 


the leaven having worked itself into the mass. Yet 
human nature is always the same; and we find that 
these Teachers, however far the system they adminis- 
tered might have shifted its position, and how widely 
soever they may themselves have differed in tempera- 
ment, yet tread the same straight path whenever this 
same human nature, with its frailties, awakens their 
fears for the honour of the Gospel. 

This identity of feeling, and even of language, is the 
more observable, because, in this instance, it forms the 
one link connecting two writers who, individually, might 
be taken as extreme samples of the most opposite ten- 
dencies of the human mind. The one, with knit brow, 
expanded nostril, firm lip, and outstretched hand—like 
the master of a ship ina storm, is intent upon the be- 
haviour of his people, and vbservant of the shifting tem- 
pest :—the other, with even front, and open eye, is 
gazing upon the cloudless vault of heaven, as if uncon- 
scious of earth, and always ready to leave it. And yet 
this contemplatist whose own converse is with the unseen 
of the Christian system, so understands this system, and 
is so alive to its bearing upon the conduct of its adhe- 
rents, as to know that, if the sordid and factitious reli- 
gionist slides off from the path of morality, on the one 
side, the sincere idealist—the man of meditation, 1s not 
unlikely to slide off from it, on the other. 

Noticeable it is that, while the main drift of the one 
epistle is practical, and the spirit and tendency of the 
other is theological, yet, in the course of it, the writer 
lets go, and again takes up his admonitory strain as 
often as seven times within the compass of so brief a 
treatise. He does this as if at the prompting of an un- 


144 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


defined moral instinct, which, ever and again, brings 
him down from Heaven to earth, alarmed lest he should 
have failed in any point of his duty, as a leader of the 
people. St. James, with a ruthless hand, rends the 
mask from’ the hypocrite. St. John, with a loving 
solemnity warns the mystically disposed against those 
illusions—those oblivions of the obligations of life, of 
which, so easily, such men are the victims. The one 
Teacher thus rebukes the perversity of the dogmatist— 
“What good is it, my brethren, for a man to say he 
hath faith, and have not works? Oan faith (such a 
faith) save him ?’”’ ‘The other teacher addresses himself 
to the sincere theopathist—lost in the meditation of in- 
effable perfections ; but yet the two come into conjunc- 
tion, as we say of the heavenly bodies, on the very same 
meridian of Christian charity :—the one says, “if a 
brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily food, 
and one of you say unto them—depart in peace, be 
ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them 
not those things which are needful to the body ; what 
doth it profit?” The other says the same thing, in 
his own manner: “ Whoso hath this world’s good, 
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up 
his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in 
him ?” 

Now at this point I decline to accept a customary 
tribute, rendered to the “sublime purity of the Chris- 
tian Kthics’’—which “all admit.” This vapid homage 
will not satisfy the occasion. I require from a reason- 
able antagonist, an acknowledgment having more of 
historic distinctness about it. It is very true, and 
there can be little merit in not denying it, that a high 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 145 


moral tone pervades the books of the New Testament. 
But beyond this, if we possess any of that instinc- 
tive faculty which enables a reader to look into the 
bosom of a writer, through the glass of what he has 
written, then we must admit that, if any two of these 
writers whose individual structure of mind was the 
most dissimilar, are placed side by side, there is seen, 
working at the depth of the heart of each, alike, a 
moral intensity—quick, sensitive, and always consistent 
in its utterance ; for even if we are not always able to 
discern the coherence of their theological reasonings— 
we always admit the harmony of their ethical conclu- 
sions. | 

This fact I shall turn to account in the course of my 
future argument; for it can never be made to consist 
with any of these suppositions under cover of which 
disbelief takes shelter. 


St. Pau. ' 


OF the fourteen Epistles attributed (and rightly) to 
St. Paul, as many as Nrnz take their place along with 
those already spoken of, as containing no allusion to 
miraculous occurrences, or to miraculous gifts. Of these 
Nine, four are addressed to individuals who were the 
Writer’s intimates and colleagues. Jive are congrega- 
tional addresses, sent to those four Societies with the 
religious condition of which the writer was, in the main, 
well content. With these there was no serious contro- 
versy in hand; nor any personal contest, making it 
needful for him to sustain his apostolic authority. The 

18 


146 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


faith of these his personal friends, and of these attached 
and obedient converts, was, like his own-—it was a ‘full 
assurance of faith’—a faith to which miracles could 
add no steadfastness. So it was that when no motive 
suggested a reference to supernatural attestations, none 
appear. | 

But as to six of the nine, now in view, they sparkle, 
as one might say, with historic crystallizations ; and 
every paragraph reflects something of the objects that 
were then surrounding the writer. St. John knew just 
so much of that world through which his pilgrimage 
heavenward lay, as might be forced upon his notice 
by urgent motives of responsibility toward the church. 
St. Paul knew the world around him, as those know it 
who are gifted with perceptions the most intensely 
vivid. The persons, the transactions, the modes of 
feeling in the midst of which he was moving, he was _ 
as much alive to, as was the most observant of his 
contemporaries. He has penned no graphic descrip- 
tions of oriental splendours, or of the Roman greatness, 
but as often as he needs a figure in illustration of his 
subject, he shows that he could have done well what he 
has not attempted. 

A sheer pedantry, I should think it, to profess hesi- 
tation in accepting these nine Epistles as genuine. 
‘Unless it were to give proof of critical quixotism, no 
one would have gone about to show reason for any such 
doubts. But, just now, it is enough if only some of 
them are genuine, and the remainder are good imita- 
tions. The reasonings—if they deserve to be so de- 
signated—of those of the German critics who have 
laboured to bring the three pastoral epistles into doubt, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 147 


are of a sort that might well be adduced in illustration 
of a copious and not unimportant branch of intellectual 
philosophy—I mean, nationality in logic. Germans 
reason after a fashion which a firmly constituted and 
cultured English mind resents as an insult to common 
sense. Upon the merest film of possibility the atten- 
uated intellectuality of Germany soars away through 
thin air. Between the not-to-be-translated mysteries 
of its abysses, and the infinite divisibilities of its 
heights, the mind of England finds no terra firma. A 
writer who undertakes the task of defending the canon 
of Holy Scriptures as inspired, must needs meet 
and refute these refinements, even the last of them ; 
but no such obligation rests upon one who carries 
forward an argument such as that which I have now 
in hand. 

The pastoral epistles connect themselves by some 
incidental allusions, with the epistles of St. James, and 
of St. Jude, for we find in them a portraiture which 
must at once be recognised. 

A particular class of men against whom one apostolic 
writer inveighs—to whom another gives battle, and to 
whom another transiently alludes, the writer of the 
three pastoral epistles so depicts as that they may 
easily be identified. They were every where found 
hovering about the infant society; and, being by 
temper and habit noisy and obtrusive, it would have 
been an easy error in an observant polytheist of that 
time, to have spoken of them as true samples of 
the new religion, and to have drawn an inference 
accordingly, to its disadvantage. We may just 
fancy the sarcastic author of the piece—nEPI TH 


148 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


ILEPETPINOY TEAEYTHS—the Voltaire of his age, if he 
had lived a century earlier, to have encountered some 
of these men, and to have given us his pithy descrip- 
tion of them. We may suppose him to say that he had 
met them in the streets of Alexandria, and at Ephesus, ~ 
and at Antioch, and at Corinth, as well as at Rome; 
and he had found them too in Crete, which seemed to 
be their head quarters. They are voluble, contentious, 
acrimonious, virulent in their talk, obtruding every 
where the mystical dogmas of their religion ; and cloak- 
ing always their real purposes. Insidious are they, 
and fertile in expedients for drawing the unwary into 
their trap ; and all this is to fill their bags with money. 
I have found one of these huckster preachers, with his 
box of baubles slung over his shoulder, working his 
way into the court yard of a great house, where he has 
contrived to draw the women about him-—mistress and 
maids, whom he entertains with marvellous stories, and 
with more marvellous dogmas; while, at frequent 
pauses, he puffs the contents of his package, where you 
may find the aromatics of Arabia—the oils of Syria— 
the silks, the silver rings and chains, the gems (not 
worth a button) of India, the tear-bottles, the signets, 
the scarfs, the tiaras of Persia :—and all as worthless 
as this new philosophy itself—this ‘‘ marvellous wisdom 
of the Christians.”’ 

Even Lucian, if he had written in this manner, must 
have admitted that those ‘Palestinian priests and 
scribes’ who were, as he does say, the reputed authors 
of this ‘‘ philosophy,” had done their utmost to de- 
nounce these false adherents, and to expel them from 
the Society. ‘A Christian bishop’—writes one of 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 149 


these Teachers, ‘‘ must not merely be a man of blame- 
Jess life; but of such energy also that he may be able 
to convince and to put to silence those disorderly and 
noisy persons—Jews chiefly, who, with sordid inten- 
tions, teach what they ought not. These are they who 
subvert whole families, and while they profess to know 
God, in works deny him :—abominable are they and 
disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”’ 
The very same persons are they which one finds 
‘creeping into houses, arid leading captive silly wo- 
men, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.” 
This plain dealing, and more to the same purpose, did 
not long fail to take effect. The men—as we have 
just seen—went off—declared themselves open enemies 
of the new religion, and acted as such thenceforward ; 
and when they had taken this turn, we find them using 
the influence they had already acquired in every city 
with “‘ ladies of rank’’ to move persecution against the 
Christian teachers. St. Luke courteously calls these 
ladies ‘devout and honourable women;’’ yet it is not 
certain that St. Paul, in a letter of pointed advices 
addressed to his friend, might not be thinking even of 
these—as the same “silly women,” who, at the insti- 
gation of the Jews, moved the magistrates to make an 
ill use of their power, driving the Apostles from city 
to city, or leaving them without redress in the hands 
of the rabble. 

It would have been of no avail, probably, to appeal 
to the candour of one like Lucian, or to his sense of 
justice, spreading before him these three pastoral 
epistle, as evidence that he had misapprehended the 
new religion. This anticynic was too thoroughly cynical 

13* 


150 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


in soul and temper to have listened to any such chal- 
Jenge, or to have placed himself within range of any 
generous emotions. But we of this time profess our- 
selves to be just, candid, and discriminating, and there- 
fore may be challenged in any case to give a verdict 
according to the evidence, even although it be in con- 
travention of our previous opinions and inward wishes. 

What then are the conclusions which, looking to 
these three epistles—and to nothing else—are war- 
rantable and inevitable?—looking to these three 
epistles, and not looking away from them, to the right 
hand or to the left.— 

Although they now stand in a collection of writings 
that are stitched in the same cover, this juxta-position 
is incidental only. They have indeed reached us on 
the same float, with other writings, but they obtained a 
lodgement upon it on a showing of their own merits, 
singly. Individually they have passed the ordeal of 
the severest criticism. The probability that they are 
not genuine is infinitely small. Even if one of the 
three were abjudged, it would still keep its place in 
argument, as a good imitation of the apostolic manner. 

The pretext (illogical as it would be to urge it) that 
these pieces are damaged—historically by an admixture 
of the supernatural, does not in this case find any sort 
of lodgement ; for here there is no such admixture—the 
belief of Christ’s resurrection being always allowed for. 

But although it would be illogical to advance such an 
exception as this—for the reality of the Christian 
miracles is the very question in debate—yet a valid 
reason would present itself for regarding these, or any — 
other writings, suspiciously, if they pictured a fabulous 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 151 


condition of the social system ;--or if it appeared that 
the writer, surrounded always by the golden haze of his 
own fictitious emotions, could never see things around 
him as they are. Manifestly it is not so here: human 
nature is plainly spoken of, such as it is, always; and 
it is cared for accordingly :—cautions, provisions, in- 
junctions, varied and repeated, show that the writer was 
at once cool in his judgment, and practical in his views, 
as well as immoveably firm in principle. 

These epistles are so admonitory in their drift and 
tone that, as to what might be the virtues of the Chris- 
tian people of that time, we gather no information from 
this source. From Pliny’s letter to Trajan we should 
learn more that is favourable to the purity of the Chris- 
tian body, than we do from Paul’s letters to Timothy 
and Titus. 

We do not need the evidence of these three letters to 
establish the fact of the existence of Christian societies 
at the time alleged. But the purpose they do serve 1s 
to show that Christianity, as interpreted by the most 
zealous and intelligent of its first Teachers, held its 
place in the world as an earnest Remonstrant Force, 
opposed, not merely to religious errors, but to evasive 
pretexts, to illusions, to hypocrisies, and to immoralities 
—Jewish or Gentile. Especially was it a protest against 
the unintelligible jargon—the interminable wranglings, 
the sophistry and the impiety which its own energy, 
simplicity and grandeur had woke up, on every side of 
it, as its assailants. 

If the mind of one of these writers seems at any 
time unhinged, while he is making his protest against 
these assailants, there is an ingredient mingling itself 


152 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


with these vivid passages, which has a deep meaning. 

It is the characteristic of minds that are habitually 
tranquil and conversant with what is great and pure, 
when summoned by a sense of duty to join issue, hand 
to hand, with the lawless and disorderly of this world, 
to revert, as if with a rebound of the soul, to the 
loftiest themes ;—as if desiring to escape from a scene 
of confusion, to the sanctuary of its happy and wonted 
meditation. Now it is remarkable that the most 
sublime and beautifully-worded of those doxologies, 
and of those condensed enunciations of eternal truths 
which illumine the pages of the New Testament, 
are found embedded in the very midst of warm 
remonstrant passages. In fact, within the narrow 
limits of these three epistles—the drift of which is 
remonstrant, there occur as many as fourteen mainly 
of these resplendent parentheses. 

- The very same indication of spontaneous reaction is 
discoverable in the epistles of St. James, and of St. 
Jude—both of them reprobative 3—-among these are 
some which stand unmatched in grandeur of idea, and 
in majestic simplicity of @xpression. 


The Epistle to Puturmon has often—perhaps often 
enough, been appealed to by those who have under- 
taken the Christian argument. Nothing can be more 
legitimate than such an appeal, if the question be— 
What was the writer? was he such a one as Paul must 
have become, after a thirty years’ apprenticeship to 
illusion and unreality? To affirm this, or even to har- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 158 


bour such a thought at all, is not so much a wrong 
done to the individual, as an outrage upon human 
nature. 

This letter breathes the tranquil rectitude of a mind 
that is in perfect equipoise ; and that is used to take its 
rest among the gentlest and purest emotions. It does 
not touch the supernatural; but it is in a genuine sense 
itself NATURAL in every phase of it. An accord of 
truth vibrates in every well-attuned mind at the hear- 
ing of every verse. Even if the writer of this letter 
had not reminded his friend that he was—‘ Paul the 
aged,’ we might surely have inferred this fact from 
that peculiarity of it which is its charm; for it shows 
the mellowed gentleness of a spirit that, at the end of 
years of labour and of suffering, has survived all its 
vehemence, but none of its sensibility. 

In what way then does this Epistle avail us for pur- 
poses of argument? It peremptorily avails for exclud- 
ing any of those suppositions touching the character of 
the writer which must of necessity be resorted to when, 
the merely historical part of Christianity being granted 
as real, the supernatural, thereto cohering, is attempted 
to be set off from it as spurious. 


The two Epistles to the Christians of THESSALONICA . 
are of early date, according to the almost unanimous 
verdict of modern critics. A phrase occurring in the 
second pargraph of the first Epistle—éy ducer, had at 
this time acquired a conventional sense, and probably 
it carried an allusion to those miraculous attestations 


154 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


of the Gospel which had attended its first promulga- 
tion in that region. Otherwise, or beyond the insertion 
of this single word, these two epistles do not contain a 
reference, direct or indirect, to any such events, as if 
then occurring, or as having lately occurred, under the 
eye of the persons addressed. This absence of the 
supernatural is full of significance in this particular 
case. 

Inconsiderately, in relation to their own argument, 
those writers who have lately assailed Christianity have 
noised the instance of Paul’s apparent error in regard 
to the near approach of the consummation of all things. 
It has been said, in a tone of exultation—‘‘ You say 
Paul was an inspired man; and yet we here find him 
professing a belief, in regard to which, assuredly, he was 
utterly mistaken.” 

It would be enough to reply that the second of these 
Epistles, written for the very purpose of correcting the 
mistake to which the first had given rise, conclusively 
proves that the writer, notwithstanding his use of the 
personal pronouns, did not himself entertain any such 
anticipation. A proper inference also from this same 
instance has been drawn by Paley, in proof (if proof 
were needed) of the genuineness of the Epistle. 

But a sufficient reply, on my part, would be this— 
that the objection bears wholly upon the question of 
INSPIRATION, with which at present, I have nothing to 
do. I am looking into these remains of apostolic Chris- 
tianity, in a purely historical light, and not at all as 
the materials of Theology. 

Thus then let us handle this matter with all Fate ee 
and see what use we can make of it, on either side. You 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 155 


take the language of the writer in its apparent meaning, 
and therefore assume that, when he says ‘ WE which 
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord ’’— 
and again, when he affirms that “We shall be caught 
up to meet the Lord in the air’—his mind was filled 
with the glowing idea of a near exchange, for himself 
and his converts, of pain, want, and humiliation, for 
eternal blessedness and glory. 

Let this then be our hypothesis. The writer was 
himself in a condition so helpless that, while preaching 
the Gospel, he was compelled to labour night and day 
for his daily bread, and at the same time he was under- 
going grievous ill treatment, at the risk of life. Those 
to whom he wrote, being mostly of humble rank, were 
also enduring cruel persecution at the hands of their 
Gentile neighbours, on account of their religion. Such 
being the present position of the Teacher, and of the 
people, he holds before them the belief that, midway in 
the tranquil hours of some day, not very distant—earth 
itself should tremble at the blast of the archangel, and 
should echo the notes of the trump of God, and the 
shouts of celestial myriads:—The Lord himself, with 
the host that do his pleasure, drawing near to earth, 
and rescuing thence his faithful followers, carrying them 
off to immortal joys! 

It was no wonder that simple people who thus under- 
stood (or misunderstood) their Teacher, should be much 
‘shaken in mind,” by such a prospect; or that some of 
them, breaking away from their ordinary occupations, 
as unnecessary, unbecoming their high expectations, 
should wander up and down—“ working not at all’’— 
but busying themselves in every thing rather than their 


156 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


proper employments. This was quite according to the 
course of things, and some recent instances of a similar 
kind might easily be mentioned. 

Yet it is certain as to the propagator of this per- 
turbing belief, that he had not himself in any degree lost 
the balance of his own mind. A tone of calm affection, 
and of a subdued feeling—the consequence of long con- 
tinued suffering—pervades both epistles, this first espe- 
cially, which is distinguished also by the earnestness of 
its admonitions; as to conduct and temper, in purity, 
rectitude, sobriety, gentleness, and avoidance of every 
guise or semblance of evil. 

If in any case we may trust to the universal prin- 
ciples of human nature, we may confidently affirm that 
a mind which while it is filled with anticipations of the 
most animating sort, is yet recollective of all proprieties, 
and careful on those points of duty which are not of an 
exciting kind, must be a strong mind, not a weak one— 
a well regulated mind, not one that is habitually de- 
ranged by some conscious moral obliquity. 

According to the hypothesis now before us, Paul was 
looking, every day, for a triumphant apotheosis of him- 
self and his associates, amid the exulting shouts of the 
heavenly hosts;—and yet he shows himself to be as 
regardful of the obligations of this present life as if a dull 
century of its trials and labours had been guaranteed 
to him. No ingenuity will avail to make this idea of 
the man consist with any of those suppositions upon 
which we are thrown if, while we accept the mere facts 
of Christianity (which it is impossible to deny) we 
attempt to rid ourselves of the supernatural, therewith 
connected; for those suppositions imply that the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 157 


Apostles were men who strangely mingled in their men- 
tal structure, imbecility, extravagance, and a blunted 
sense of the obligations of truth. 

But now I relinquish the advantage put into my 
hand by an inconsiderate opponent, and assume the 
contrary supposition, which I take to be manifestly the 
true one—namely, that, in writing the first of these 
epistles, St. Paul did not entertain the belief which, at 
a glance, his language may seem to express. 

Then I ask, how was it that he did not entertain this 
belief? Ideas of thes order were, as we see, actually 
present to his mind, and they furnished the grounds on 
which he took comfort for himself, and imparted it to 
others. Now with minds imbued with religious concep- 
tions the tendency has always shown itself to bring 
down the supernatural, if possible, upon the present 
hour. Even highly cultured minds have been seen to 
surrender themselves to this powerful impulse —‘‘to- 
morrow, next month—next year, or such a year, named, 
which we may live to see—these glories shall brighten 
the carth on which we tread.” ‘Thus, from age to age, 
have sincere but unstable souls been wont to beguile 
themselves on the field of prophetical interpretation. 
Not so St. Paul (on the supposition now before us). 
Yet why not? If we say, because his mind was pre- 
eminently vigorous, and was always in the soundest con- 
dition; if this be the reply, I am content; and shall 
not fail to draw an inference accordingly. If the reply 
be—The actual course of this world’s affairs, involving 
a slow development of evil. principles, had been con- 
veyed to him supernaturally, that is to say, by the 
teaching of Him who alone looks on through the lapse 

14 


158 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


of ages; then also I am content;—for such an answer 
(the only true and admissible answer) embraces every 
thing on the side of Belief. It is beyond my pro- 
vince to advert particularly to that prediction of the 
second epistle by means of which the Apostle corrects 
the mistake into which his friends had fallen: never- 
theless this prediction, by its boldness, its gravity, and 
the unlikelihood of its fulfilment, bespeaks its own 
reality. It has been said that this prediction, coupled 
with another occurring in the Epistle to Timothy, are 
only notable instances of sagacity, forecasting the ten- 
dencies of human affairs. Wonderful indeed would be 
such an instance of long-sightedness! but I should be 
apt to think that a mind which could thus penetrate 
the dark unknown of centuries to come, must have seen 
that a religion pretending to be supernatural, and which 
yet was not so in fact, would soon exhaust its meagre 
resources, and disappear. Is it then our supposition, 
that an intellect of the highest order lent itself to an 
enterprise which it saw to be baseless and desperate ? 


The absence of all allusion to miraculous attesta- 
tions in the Epistle to the EPHESIANS, is a fact desery- 
ing of particular attention. 

The captious exceptions of De Wette have at length 
been overruled, and the genuineness of this Epistle can 
scarcely be said to stand liable to a shade of reasonable 
doubt. Following the arbitrary division of the Received 
Text, we have before us 155 clauses, or separable mem- 
bers of a continuous flow of thought. Of these verses 
66 convey the writer’s fervent feelings, as in presence 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 159 


of the loftiest themes of Christian Theology; 89 verses 
are occupied, either immediately with pointed ethical 
injunctions, or with those reasons and motives that 
take a bearing upon the ordinary behaviour of Chris- 
tians; but in not so much as one clause, or phrase, does 
the writer turn aside to mention miracles, or miraculous 
endowments. And yet there are two places in. this 
epistle in which such an allusion would have seemed 
quite natural. The first of these is (iv. 11,) where the 
functions which were then in exercise in the Church are 
enumerated, among which the power of working mira- 
cles does not find a place; although, in a parallel 
passage of another epistle (1 Cor. xii. 10—28) these 
powers are expressly named. ‘The other place is that 
occurring toward the close (vi. 10, et seq.) in which the 
writer sets forth, in vivid figurative language, the ar- 
duous position which those occupy who, in making pro- 
fession of the Gospel, oppose themselves to the crafty 
and to the open violence, not only of men around them, 
but of invisible adversaries—more to be dreaded. 

Against these powers—seen and unseen, the Chris- 
tian soldier is exhorted to hold his ground, armed (the 
fanatic would have said—with Heaven’s own thunder- 
bolt, and with those “fiery darts’? which would bring 
omnipotence to bear upon the artillery of hell) armed, 
says the Apostle, with Truth, Rectitude, Peace, Faith, 
the hope of Salvation, and the Word of God; for these 
are the defences and the weapons which a genuine 
wisdom approves. 

Quite of a piece with the spirit of this closing advice 
are the preceding admonitions, in the compass of which 
each of the principal points of homely morality is 


160K. THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


touched upon, in the very plainest form of words, and 
in a tone of earnest solemnity. But I hear you say, 
sarcastically—* It appears then that the Christian folk 
of those Apostolic times needed much looking to, as to 
their morals.” I reply-—It does so appear; but then, 
if they needed it, THEY HAD IT; and this fact 1s enough 
in relation to my present purpose. 

What we find is this—That the first Teachers of 
Christ’s religion, though they might forget, for a time, 
their own wonder-working endowments, never wrote a 
letter in which they forgot the main import of their 
religion; which was to uproot the usurpation of Satan in 
this world ;—and this usurpation was to be resisted by 
means that are purely spiritual and moral. 

This absence of the supernatural, in the instance be- 
fore us, has however yet another meaning. 

The 66 verses already referred to, make up a cluster 
of parentheses, piled one upon another by the writer's 
fulness of feeling. He has almost forgotten his galling 
chain (vi. 20); he has forgotten the Roman soldier at 
his side, and the prison ;—he has forgotten earth and 
its trials, as well as its pomps. Asif with a seraph’s 
wing he has reached the upper heavens, and thence he 
measures, at a glance, the scheme of human salvation, 
stretching out far into the eternity past; and far into 
a bright eternity to come. On either hand of this 
shining pathway through the infinite, he sees a bright 
array of “principalities and powers,’’ observant of 
this mystery of redemption—long veiled, and now 
revealed. 

While thus musing upon objects so vast, was the 
writer’s state of mind such as we must approve, or not? 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 161 


Were his feelings—real or illusory? If they were of 
the latter class, and if there be any coherence in 
human nature, meditations so lofty, indulged by one 
who at the same time believed himself to stand near to 
the Supernatural—as we find he did, would infallibly have 
gone off upon this high ground ;—here he would have 
exhibited himself as in correspondence with heaven by 
means of those supernatural endowments which were 
at his command. 

How is it in fact that he descends to resume his ter- 
restrial standing-place? He has just sealed his lofty 
meditations with a doxology; and then a returning 
consciousness of the sombre things of earth takes this 
turn—‘ I therefore a prisoner of the Lord beseech you 
that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
called—with all lowliness and meckness, with long-suf- 
fering, forbearing one another in love.”’ 

Adhering then to our document the case stands thus 
On the one hand bright meditations did not lead the 
writer of this epistle toward the Supernatural ;—they 
did not, BECAUSE HE WAS No ENTHUSIAST: on the other 
hand, gloomy meditations did not drive him toward the 
Supernatural ;—they did not, BECAUSE HE WAS NO 
Fanatic. He kept close to the course of practical 
wisdom and virtue—because, in fact, he was in the 
highest sense, wise, virtuous, and sound-minded. 


Toward the Christian people at Puritppt, St. Paul's 
feelings were those of warm affection, gratitude, and ap- 
proval. The personal allusions in this Epistle, addressed 

14* 


162 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


to this Society, are of the most peculiar kind; and 
these, along with the mass of external testimonies, 
place it far out of the range of captious exceptions. 
Once again, then, referring to my protest against 
violence, I affirm that—violence not admitted—this 
morsel of Greek, now under my eye—this six pages 
of antiquity, is as much a REALITY as is any other 
remains of past time which this present time conserves, 
and trusts to. If I may not say so much as this, show 
me, in accordance with the authentic rules of historical © 
criticism, why not. 

In this composition the writer, who was then reach- 
ing the term of his labours—the religion which he had 
taught having by this time wrought the whole of its 
proper effect upon his mind—freely opens his heart to 
our inspection ; and in doing so he incidentally conveys 
the elements of Christianity itself, and exhibits its 
bearing upon human nature. 

Now I wish that we could read this one document 
of the Apostolic times as if not an atom beside had 
come down to us: let us take it as if it were our 
only means of forming an opinion concerning that 
religion of which we possess copious information as it 
had come to hold a place in the world, in the age of 
the Antonines. 

Whatever that breadth of facts required us to ima- 
gine, as belonging to the CENTRE FAcT—the rise of this 
scheme, we find to be condensed within the limits of 
this one document. There is first the mysterious dig- 
nity of the PERSON to whom, on every page of the 
later Christian writings, a reference occurs, in terms 
of grave reverence, and devout affection. LucrAN, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 163 


and other writers of his age and class, assure us that 
the zeal and assiduity of the Christians of his time in 
serving or rescuing one another was incredible —duyzavoy 
Sf cu 7d ayos Exvderxvvytar, Exevday Te ToLOVToV yévn tat, Sn woovov 
as oiXprotiavde ovupopay movovpevor TO mpay-da, NaVTO ExLVOU, 
Hapndsae nepouevor advo. To us this need not seem 
strange, for the motives which prompted such labours 
of love had a foundation in the Christian theology of 
surpassing intensity. The writer of this epistle says to 
his friends at Philippi—‘‘ Do not, every one of you, be 
regardful of his personal interests, but let each be 
mindful of the welfare of others:—in a word, let that 
disposition be in you which was in CuRist Jesus, who 
being in the form of God thought it no wrong to be 
equal to God; and yet emptied himself (of this dignity) 
and took the form of a servant ;’’ and this to accomplish 
our salvation. 

It is testified abundantly, by their enemies, concern- 
ing the Christians of the martyr age, that they cheer- 
fully submitted to spoliations, and were even prodigal 
of life. CELSUS mocks them on this very ground; he 
says, though making much of the body in their doc- 
trine of the resurrection, they were ready—zaaw 8 duro 
pire eis xoAdoEeLs, ws deouov—when challenged to renounce 
their hope of immortality. This is as it should be, if 
they had truly imbibed the spirit of their religion as at 
first taught them ; for St, Paul had said—‘‘ Yea doubt- 
less I reckon all things as a loss, for the excellency of 
the knowledge of Curist JESUS my Lord; for whom IL 
have suffered the loss of all things, if by any means ] 
might attain to the resurrection of the dead.” 

Puiny assures us that he found the Christians of his 


164. THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


province to be a harmless folk, binding themselves to 
do whatever is right, and to abstain from whatever is | 
wrong. So it should be, for, from the first, they had — 
been thus instructed. “As to any thing further my — 
brethren (which I might wish to say, this is enough). 
Whatever things (in profession or behaviour) are true, 
whatever things are seemly, whatever things are just, 
whatever things are pure, whatever things are loving, 
whatever things are well-reputed, if there be any thing 
of manly virtue, if any thing praiseworthy, make such 
things your study.” 

And thus, in the main, did Christians behave them- 
selves in those times concerning which our information 
is ample—their enemies being their witnesses; and 
thus—as we now see, had they been taught from the 
very first. There is here before us an arch—all in one 
style, one jamb of which has its resting place in the 
age of Trajan, the other in the time of Nero. 

In this Epistle we find a lofty theology—a bright 
immortality, a pure and a finished morality, a loving 
fervour, and a sharply struck individuality ; but there 
are no miracles. Nevertheless there seemed room for 
one, inasmuch as the writer had looked for “sorrow 
upon sorrow’ in the dangerous illness of his attendant 
friend—Epaphroditus—a calamity he had not thought 
himself able to avert by supernatural means; for 
these were at his command only for a single and 
clearly-defined purpose—the attestation of his message. 
Granted for this one purpose, no allusion to them is 
found in epistles addressed to those who needed no 
such assurances. 

The Epistle to the Christians of Conossz presents 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 165 


the same elements, and sustains the same inferences: 
there is the same theology, as to the Prrson (i. 15), 
the same hope (i. 12, iii. 4): the same morality (iu. 5, 
et seq.): and throughout it, the same fervour and in- 
dividuality. It presents however this further charac- 
teristic of the writer’s temper and principles—namely, 
a decisive protest against that specious pietism which 
so easily enslaves feeble minds by its abstracted 
mysticism, and its ascetic practices, and its supersti- 
tious observances. Yet the writer had no contention 
with this Society ; and the epistle contains no allusion 
to miracles. 


GENERAL CONCLUSION AS TO THE NON- SUPERNATURAL 
EPISTLES. 


It appears then that these apostolic writers though 
they much more often omit the supernatural than 
advert to it, yet are never found to omit the pre- 
ceptive element in their addresses to their converts. 
They well knew that it is not by miracles that men 
are to be trained to virtue. Now, in this, I see just 
that which one observes in the instance of a careful 
and industrious husbandman. He has been looking 
upon his parched fields; but in a moment Heaven’s 
flash lights up the landscape: Heaven’s voice peals 
round the skies; Heaven’s copious rain comes. down, 
a life-giving torrent. This seasonable help the hus- 
bandman could not command; but when it has come, 
itis his part to follow it up: he does not talk of the 
fertilizing thunder shower, but he goes to work upon 
his field with a new animation. So it is with the apos- 
tolic writers: they say little of miracles; but they 
say much of behaviour: they plant, they sow, they 
root up every weed: and it is God that giveth the 
increase. 

Besides, these New Testament writers had read the 
Old Testament history; and they had gathered from 

(166) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 167 


it a lesson of wisdom by which they ruled their own 
conduct, as teachers of religion. They held that 
the things which had befallen the Israelitish people 
had been recorded “for our learning,” and from this 
history they drew the inference that, although mira- 
cles serve to bring the teacher into his position of 
authority, as God’s minister, the work on account of 
which he has been so. installed has to be carried for- 
ward irrespectively of miracles. The Apostles were 
well conversant with those historical odes in which the 
obduracy of the people is the recurrent theme. ‘They 
had listened to the verse, ‘‘ Marvellous things did He 
in the sight of our forefathers, in the land of Egypt: 
even in the field of Zoan;’’ and they had taken up 
the response—‘ Yet for all this they sinned more 
against him, and provoked the most High in the wil- 
derness’’—“ they believed not his wondrous works’— 
“They forgat God their Saviour, who had done so 
great things in Egypt: wondrous things in the land 
of Ham; and fearful things by the Red Sea.” 

That these instructive passages in the history of their 
nation were present.to the minds of the Christian teach- 
ers we have their own repeated assurance (1 Cor. x., 
Acts, vii. 51, xiii. xxviii. 25; and Hebrews iii. 7, 8, 9); 
and that they had put a true and wise construction upon 
these instances we have this palpable evidence, that 
while their writings breathe throughout an intense fer- 
your, directed toward the one object of promoting and 
securing the personal and social virtue of the people 
committed to their care, they do not in a single instance 
throw the stress of any ethical argument upon the super- 
natural attestations of their message. Throughout 


168 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the epistles morality is made to rest upon the solid basis 
of universal and permanent religious considerations. 

I have said that the question of Christianity is strictly 
determinable. Thus far, it clearly is so. 

When the massive literary remains of the period 
already referred to—Christian—non-Christian, and anti- 
Christian—are taken as evidence of the existence, wide- 
extension, and general quality of the new religion, in- 
structed men will not be found to be materially at 
variance as to the palpable facts that are thus estab- 
lished. These facts are out of question among edu- 
cated persons: but they lead us to look back toward 
that moment when this religion was making its earliest 
assaults upon the religions around it, and upon the 
immoralities of the times. The result of this quest for 
early materials is the production of some ten or twelve 
compositions, or more, purporting to be addresses or 
official circulars issued by the first teachers and preach- 
ers of the Gospel. These letters having come down 
from the time of their alleged production, amply veri- 
fied in the modes admitted to be valid in such cases, are 
submitted to the strictest scrutiny, which modern criti- 
cism, in its mood of utmost severity, has been able to 
effect. This process is continued through a period of 
sixty years; not because the case is in itself ambigu- 
ous; but mainly for this reason, that each rising man 
aspiring to practice in this court, and ambitious to dis- 
tinguish himself by taking his share in the conduct of a 
suit that draws the eyes of the world, has hunted the 
ground anew for pretexts on which to rest his reputa- 
tion. 

I am keeping my eye upon those fourteen epistles to 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 169 


which reference has been made in the preceding pages ; 
and which I have named the Non-SupERNATURAL ; 
and am now about to call your attention to the Seven, 
in which an affirmation of, or allusion to, miracles, some- 
where appear. It may be well, however, in stepping 
across from the one class of writirgs to the other, to 
bring under your eye the proportion, as to mass, which 
the one bears to the other, in a more exact manner than 
in stating it, as I have done, roundly, as two to one. 

The Canonical Epistles, which are twenty-one, are 
_ broken up, in the Received Text, into 2767 verses. It 
matters not whether this subdivision has been well or 
ill effected. Of this number a large proportion, which 
it is not easy to define, has reference to the circum 
stances or history of the writers, or of the persons 
addressed ; and is of a purely historic quality. This mass 
constitutes, in fact, a sort of substratum, firm in its 
adhesion, part to part, and available for any of those 
purposes which, in an argument on EVIDENCE, it is 
usual to accomplish by such aid. 

Another portion of the mass, the quantity of which it 
is not important to ascertain, is occupied with theologi- 
cal disquisition, or argument, or the enunciation of 
principles that are purely religious. About one thou- 
sand of the verses are either directly preceptive, bear- 
ing especially and pointedly upon the virtues and vices, 
or they are abstractedly preceptive, and properly ethi- 
cal. Such are the injunctions—“Be ye holy (saith 
God) for I am holy”—* Without holiness no man shall 
see the Lord;” and many of the same sort. 

I now set off one chapter entire, which is directive, 
relating to the exercise of the “gift of tongues ;’’—this 

15 


170 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


passage, not included then, of the whole number of 
canonical verses, namely 2767, not more than SIXTEEN, 
or, if we include some contextual portions, let us say 
''WENTY verses, contain affirmations or allusions imply- 
ing miraculous events, as known to the writer, and for 
the reality of which he must be held to pledge his repu- 
tation. Presented therefore in the one mode, the pro- 
portion between the two masses is as two to one. Pre- 
sented in the other form, which is the most exact, it is 
as one to 138. 

Perhaps this state of the facts may not hitherto have 
occurred to you: but do not misunderstand my inten- 
tion in thus presenting it. Do not imagine that lam 
clearing the ground, as far as I can, in preparation for 
a retreat; or am intending to creep out of the miracu- 
lous through a loophole of this sort. 

In entertaining any such a supposition you would do 
mea great wrong. What I am preparing the way for is 
an affirmation of the MrracuLous in the boldest, most 
ample, and uncompromising manner; but meantime this 
fact of the vast disproportion of the two masses—for 
which perhaps you were not prepared, as attaching to 
the epistolary part of the Canon, I hold to be fraught 
with argumentative meaning of a very conclusive kind; 
for it will consist with no other hypothesis than this, 
That, conversant as they affirm themselves to have been, 
with supernatural events, these writers—not one or two 
of them, but all—were right-minded men, and were 
exempt, in a most unusual degree, from the ordinary 
religious tendency to run into, to run after, or to drive 
forward, those excitements which the Supernatural sup- 
plies. 


s 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 171 


I might now, and as thus more accurately computed, 
bring forward the body of historic materials, using 
more than ninety-nine parts of it out of a hundred, as 
standing clear of every pretext of exception, on the 
ground of the admixture of the miraculous. This ninety- 
nine per cent. forms a body of vastly greater bulk than 
is required for bearing up, and for giving consistency 
to, the facts of the widely-based Christianity of the age 
of the Antonines. This central mass satisfies the con- 
ditions that are demanded by the facts belonging to the 
later period. All the phenomena of that period are 
embraced and satisfied; every thing is explicable. The 
religion, seen at its rise, is found to be a system of 
motives, principles, and precepts which we find to have 
been brought into act in the martyr age, throughout the 
extent of the Roman world. 

The documents of the later time are so copious and 
so heterogeneous that an exceptive criticism may do its 
worst without affecting any argument dependent upon 
it. The documents of the inchoative period, though 
small in bulk, have come forth from a “‘ furnace of earth, 
heated seven times,’’ and they stand as approved. The 
later dated and voluminous mass takes its bearing— 
groining down upon the centre column, and finding 
there its true support, whether considered as so much 
masonry, or as so much architecture ; it is all solid, and 
it is all in keeping. 

But now to affirm that this one per cent. of the Su- 
pernatural vitiates the mass in the midst of which it 
occurs, is just to beg the question upon which we are 
joining issue. 


172 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


You say Mrracues never have occurred ; if so, those 
who affirm them must not be listened to. 

But satisfy me in any way you please, either of evi- 
dence, or of abstract reasoning, that they have not, and 
then we are agreed. As to the evidence, it is immove- 
able; and as to your abstract reasoning, it is, in my 
view, a transparent sophism. 


THE SEVEN APOSTOLIC EPISTLES WHICH AFFIRM OR 
ALLUDE TO MIRACLES. 


THESE are five of St. Paul’s Epistles—namely, to the 
RoMANS, the CoRINTHIANS, first and second; to the 
GALATIANS, and to the HEBREWS—here assumed to be 
his, and the two Epistizs of St. PETER. 

These compositions, when compared with the Four- 
TEEN, are they of inferior pretensions, as to genuineness 
and authenticity? One of them excepted, it is not at 
all so. Do they lock-in less firmly with the historic 
mass with which they stand connected? This is far 
from being the fact. Four of the Pauline Epistles so 
cohere with the nine of the Non-Supernatural class that 
no critic would attempt to sever them. Read the two 
epistles to the Corinthians, and the epistle to the 
Churches of Galatia; read them in the Greek, and do 
your utmost, as you go on, to persuade yourself that 
they are any thing else than what they profess to be. 
Even the Tiibingen critics have here confessed them- 
selves foiled. No scholar who is not crazed, or, what is 
worse, half crazed, and therefore allowed to go in and 
out among the sane, will risk himself upon the sceptical 
side, in these instances. ‘The same may be affirmed 
of the Epistle to the Romans. Upon this four, with 
the Epistle to the Philippians (also allowed to be unas- 

15* (173) 


174 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


sailable by criticism, or by hypercriticism) the entire 
weight of the Christian argument might very safely be 
thrown. 


But I now take in hand that one of the Seven upon 
which a divided verdict has been pronounced by honest 
and competent critics. I mean the Second Epistle of 
St. Peter. 

For the purposes of the present argument, I regard 
it as if, on good grounds, supposed to be not what it 
professes itself; or to be, in some sense not easily 
defined, a spurious work. That it had become known, 
and that it was publicly read throughout the Hast at an 
early period, is a fact sufficiently attested by the mode 
in which it is cited, or referred to, by (Clement of 
Alexandria?) by Eusebius, and by Jerome. That, not- 
withstanding its intrinsic excellence, it stood so long 
waiting for admission into the Canon, is one proof, 
among many, of the cautious manner in which the 
ancient Church exercised its discriminative functions, as 
guardian of the Sacred Text. 

The intrinsic excellence of this suspected svete is 
such that its exclusion from the Canon, if this could 
now be effected, would inflict pain upon every devout 
reader of Holy Scripture: its characteristics are apos- 
tolic gravity, unction, and purity of aim. Ina word, 
it bears upon its surface that inimitable air of calm 
majesty, and simplicity, which is peculiarly Brblical, 
and which so broadly distinguishes the books of the 
Canon from all other compositions—especially from 
those of the age next ensuing. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. he 


The supposition of the spuriousness of this Epistle 
may best be made to consist with its apostolic tone, by 
means of some such hypothesis as this—That some 
genuine fragments of apostolic teaching had been put 
together by whoever framed the epistle, as one; and 
that the interference of this fabricator went no further 
than merely to insert, between the fragmentary por- 
tions, some few connective phrases. The first verse 
therefore (on this supposition) may be untrue only so 
far as this—that it was not ‘Simon Peter’ who issued 
the whole, in its present form. 

Any such supposition as this manifestly touches the 
authority of the epistle, in a theological sense; but in 
relation to an argument purely historical, it has little or 
no significance. I will now take it up on the lowest 
supposition (which however is very far from coinciding 
with my personal belief) namely—That, from the first 
verse to the last, this epistle is a forgery, or an 
attempted imitation of the well-known apostolic style. 

If so, then the imitation is so good, that, notwith- 
standing many critical difficulties, and the paucity, or 
inconclusiveness of the external evidence, it d¢d obtain 
currency at a very early time: it did at a later time, 
make its way into the Canon. In modern times its air 
of truth and reality have secured for it the suffrages of 
an evenly balanced array of critics. 

This fabrication then (if such it be) has been ably 
executed. Those who have decided against it, whether 
in ancient times or in our own, have admitted that “it 
contains nothing unworthy of an Apostle :’’—although 
differing in style from the first epistle, it differs not at 
all in its tone and tendency. 


176 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


Now let us put the facts together. How good soever 
the intentions of a writer may be, or mistaken his prin- 
ciples of action, it is not possible to attribute any high 
degree of moral sensitiveness to a man who sits down 
coolly to produce a forgery. There must be a flaw, or 
something worse, in the understanding of the maker of 
a lie, as well as a falseness in his conscience, be his aim 
never so good. A mind that is at once infirm and 
vitiated, betrays itself somewhere. An involuntary 
betrayal of itself may be set down as the natural con- 
Sequences of an inward treason: or it will be so, unless 
a restraining force of extraordinary intensity is present 
to prevent it. 

In this instance what was this restraining force, the 
operation of which has been suflicient—as we see, to 
exclude from this fabrication every taint of the morbid 
condition of the writer’s own mind? It can have been 
nothing else but a very vivid sense of the extreme deli- 
cacy and difficulty of his enterprise, in its bearing upon 
morals. One phrase wrong, in this sense—a single 
clause savouring of laxity, would be enough to condemn 
the whole, in the view of the Christian community ; for 
all would exclaim—‘ it was not thus that an Apostle of 
Jesus Christ ever spoke or wrote.” 

I will put this supposition in a more definite form, as 
thus :—let us imagine that the real, though unconfessed 
object of the writer was, under favour of an apostolic 
name, to give currency to the belief of the literal melt- 
ing down of the material universe—“ the heavens and 
the earth,” in the “day of the Lord.” This startling 
averment, which is but slenderly, if at all—corroborated 
by other Scriptural declarations, the writer reiterates, in 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF 1T7 


phrases a little varied, three times within the compass 
of the same paragraph. He does this as if he were 
very intent upon his object, and wishing to secure a due 
regard to it. Here then was precisely the hinging 
place of the whole piece ; and at this point especial care 
was requisite. 

Now the writer, well aware as he was, of the feeling 
that pervaded the Christian community, and knowing 
what it was that would be looked for in a writing pur- 
porting to be apostolic—skilfully sets his dogma, as to 
the fiery doom of the creation, in the most authentic 
style, inserting between his two affirmations of it, this 
pointed ethical caution—“‘If then all these things (which 
now we look upon) are to be melted down (suddenly, 
and perhaps soon) what sort of persons ought you to 
show yourselves in pureness of behaviour and in piety?” 
......** But we Christians look for new heavens, and a 
new earth—which is to be the habitation of righteous- 
ness. Wherefore beloved, inasmuch as ye are looking 
out for such things as these, be careful that (the Lord) 
when he comes, may find you in peace, unspotted, and 
blameless.” 

It was thus then, and in no other manner, that, in 
those early times, a spurious writing could be put toge- 
ther with any chance of its passing among the Churches 
as an apostolic work. If now this Epistle be genuine, 
then it is available, with its majestic simplicity, and its 
fervour, in proof of the temper and feeling of “Simon 
Peter, the servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.” But 
if it be spurious, then it is available, in a sense even 
more expressive, and more extensive, as indicative of 
the teraper, the feeling, and the moral sensitiyeness of 


178 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the community, the suffrages and favour of which it 
courted. 

If I thought of, and cared for, nothing but the argu- 
mentative availableness of this document, I should be 
equally willing to accept it, as genuine, or as spurious. 

Whether genuine or spurious, it sustains alike a fur- 
ther inference. If it be genuine, then, in the near 
prospect of martyrdom, by crucifixion—Kai Tézpos 82 éxi 
‘Pouns xata xeparjs oravpovrac—which he mentions under 
the calm euphemy of a “putting off this tabernacle,” 
the writer very pointedly affirms his latest confident 
profession of the Gospel, as true; and he pledges him- 
self on the ground of his personal knowledge of its 
truth, in recollection of that hour, when, from the midst 
of the dazzling shekinah, the voice of the Most High 
proclaimed Jesus the Son of God! 

But if this epistle be factitious, and if the writer was, 
as we see, perfectly aware of the conditions under 
which he might hope to gain credit for his work, then 
it is manifest that it had been the known. usage of the 
Apostles to utter such professions of their personal con- 
cernment with the supernatural events of Christ’s life. 
Or state the case thus ;—the supposition being that this 
second epistle is a fabrication.— 

—The very significant fact has already obtruded itself 
upon our notice, that, taking the apostolic epistles en 
masse, allusions to the supernatural are very few; not 
being one per cent. as to quantity; and that these 
writers, more often than not, addressed the churches 
without making a single averment of this sort, direct 
or indirect. It is plain therefore that it would have 
been quite a safe course for the forger of an apostolic 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. L(9 


letter to avoid every thing of this kind: on the whole, 
it would have been the safer course of the two; and 
an astute scribe (he was no blunderer who got up 
this epistle) would be very likely to keep himself on 
this safer side. But now, unless it had been the 
known practice of the Apostles, and of St. Peter espe- 
cially, at times, if not often, to affirm their personal 
implication with the supernatural; unless there had 
been among the churches a consciousness of this fact, 
it would have been to incur arisk of the most ex. 
treme sort to insert, in a letter bearing the name of 
St. Peter, a formal statement, such as occurs in the 
first chapter. 

If the Epistle be genuine, then this aged Teacher of 
the Gospel, in the last days of his life, affirms 
Christianity to be a supernatural dispensation. 

If it be spurious, it indicates the fact that such affir- 
mations were customary with apostolic men. 


ee ey een en 


The First Epistie general of Peter. In this in- 
stance to advance, as if there might be reasonable 
ground for it, the supposition of spuriousness, would be 
a great impertinence. The apostolic antiquity of this 
Kpistle is a fact out of question—I mean among those 
whose readings in German have not denuded them of 
their English common-sense. Yet even here, though 
very unwilling to seem to concede any thing to pedantry 
and affectation—I should be willing, as to its bearing 
upon my argument, to take this Epistle as (though not 


180 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


genuine) so like to the genuine, as to secure for itself 
universal acceptance as such. . 

The calm majesty, the fervour, the bright hopeful- 
ness, and the intense moral import of the Epistle carry 
it home to every ingenuous mind as an embodiment of 
whatever is most affecting in theology, and the most 
effective and salutary in ethics. With those—if there 
are any, who have no consciousness of these qualities 
in the writing before us, I should not court contro- 
versy. In any such instance nature must have dealt 
in a very parsimonious manner with the mind and 
heart, and sophistry must have greatly overdone her 
part. 

But how does this Epistle connect itself with the 
Supernatural? What does it say of Miracles? Not 
one word of allusion does it contain to occurrences of 
this order, as then attendant upon the ministry of the 
Apostles. It is addressed to the dispersion (Christians, 
figuratively, or Jewish converts, literally) sojourning in 
the provinces of the Lesser Asia. St. Paul in his 
course through these same countries had established 
the reality of his mission by “‘mighty signs and won- 
ders,’’ wrought in every city on his track. In these 
provinces—or some of them, Christianity had prevailed 
over heathenism to an extent—so says Pliny—which 
must leave a yery difficult problem in the hands of 
those who, in their theory of the spread of the Gospel, 
deprive its preachers of the aid of the Supernatural : 
it had spread and triumphed either without the help 
of miracles ; or with that help. Take which suppo- 
sition seems to you to involve the lesser difficulty. 
I must profess to think that in this case it is nothing 


THR RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 181 


but Mrractzs that can save us from the IncrE- 
DIBLE. 

No such occurrences are however alluded to in the 
instance before us. I draw an inference full of mean- 
ing from this fact ; coupled as it is with another, which 
is of still deeper meaning. 

The writer, in addressing an admonition to the Pres. 
byters of the Christian societies takes to himself the 
style which conveys the lowest of his claims so to 
address them: he is a presbyter, as they are ; and also 
“a witness of the sufferings of Christ.” To these 
sufferings he makes a very distinct allusion as often 
as seven times in the course of the Epistle. In each 
instance these allusions are woven into an ethical con- 
text, in such a manner as to be inseparable from it. 
Take the instance which occurs in the second chapter. 
The main purport of this chapter, as indeed of the 
entire Epistle, is hortatory, and bears upon the con- 
duct and temper of Christians, when suffering for their 
profession. Whatever in it is theological rather than 
ethical, comes in as an illustration, or as a subsidiary 
reason: these adjuncts, therefore, so cohere to the 
mass as to make an attempted separation of them 
impracticable. ) 

Christians are fortified under the endurance of 
wrongful inflictions, by several considerations—mainly 
by a reference to the example of Christ, who so suf- 
fered, wrongfully indeed, for in him was there no sin, 
no guile, and who, in silent patience, yielded himself to 
violence, while “‘ his. own self he bare our sins in his 
own body on the tree.” 

It is thus that the Writer, and in other places in the 

16 


182 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


same incidental manner, affirms and attests the death 
of Christ, of which he was a witness. ‘This is not all; 
for, as if to preclude subterfuge, he follows the released 
Spirit in its descent into Hades, and affirms what had 
been the purport of this entrance of the ‘‘ Shepherd 
and Bishop of Souls’ among the Dead. A little 
further on, and when resuming the subject of the 
patient endurance of wrongful inflictions, he affirms 
that Christ, when ‘‘ put to death in the flesh,” entered 
—incorporeal—among the disembodied; visiting the 
region where they are detained; and there making a 
loud and authoritative proclamation ; (on the part of 
God.) 

With the theology of this passage I have nothing 
to do; nor am I careful to forefend inferences of any 
sort. I read the verses, in their open and historic 
sense. A knowledge of this fact, remote as it was 
from all cognizance of man, without supernatural aid, 
must have been given to St. Peter, either by Christ 
himself, orally, after his resurrection, or must have 
been conveyed to him at a later time, in some mode 
which he regarded as supernatural; and _ therefore 
authentic. If I were to describe to you the things 
which would be found in a particular latitude and 
longitude, at the lowest depth of the Atlantic, in doing 
so I must make profession of having at my command 
some means of information that are unknown alike to 
common experience and to science. St. Peter affirms, 
therefore, in this case, that which involves and implies 
the supernatural, even more necessarily than is done in 
some narratives of visible miracles. 

But he affirms also the resurrection of Christ, in 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 183 


varied phrases, five times in this Epistle. These affirma 
tions are all of them adjunctive to his proper subject, 
and inseparable from the context. They include not 
only the fact of the resurrection, but that also of 
Christ’s assumption to the throne of celestial dominion. 
(iii. 22.) We have here in hand an instance of the 
Coueston of the supernatural and the historic which is 
of a peculiar kind. 

In any composition if three, four, or five subjects, 
of different classes, are brought together, that one 
among them must be regarded as the one uppermost 
in the mind of the writer, in illustration of which the 
other subjects—-two, three, or four, are introduced. 
That one is the leading subject ; the others the adjunc- 
tive and subdividing. 

According to this plain rule, the drift of this Hpistle 
is ethical. The main intention of the writer, and his 
ruling impulse, was so to fortify the minds of the 
Christian people under his care, as to secure the purity, 
rectitude, and religious consistency of their conduct. 
In going about to make good this—his main purpose, 
he brings in those principal facts on which the Christian 
profession rested, and in behoof of which Christians 
were liable to suffer. These facts stand in serves, 
commencing with a merely historic fact—namely, the 
crucifixion, and the death of Christ-—-going on to those 
that were wholly remote from human cognizance, and 
coming to a close in the visible, yet supernatural fact, 
of Christ’s ascent from earth to heaven. 

Now this instance. of indissoluble Cohesion may be 
dealt with, and it has often been so dealt with, in a 
style of extenuation or apology, as thus. “ Can we 


184 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


imagine, or ought we to suppose that a writer who is 
so careful to enforce moral principles, and who so well 
understands them, should himself, through life, be the 
propagator of what he must always have known to be 
a falsehood?’ Reasonably we can imagine no such 
thing; but just now I should state the case in other 
terms, as thus—— 

I bring this document into Court. In doing so I 
protest against any pleadings that take for granted the 
very question which is now to be argued, and upon 
which the plaintiff and defendant have joined issue. 
That question involves the reality of a series of facts, 
including those that are miraculous. 

As to the genuineness of this particular document, 
it has already passed under revision, in the proper 
Court ; and it has been duly countersigned there, as 
authentic. It stands open to no exceptions that could 
be available for the plaintiff, except this one—that it 
bears upon the verdict in a sense unfavourable to 
himself. But this exception, of course, stands for 
nothing. | 

Iread my document from beginning to end, and 
then ask—‘“‘ Excluding the plaintiff's nugatory objec- 
tion, which is grounded upon his apprehension of an 
adverse verdict, would this Epistle suggest any other 
idea than this, that the writer’s own mind was tranquil 
and wellordered; and that his intention in writing 
it was of that sort which is becoming to a wise and 
virtuous man; especially to one who is in a place of 
authority ?”’ 

The answer is manifest. This Epistle, if read apart 
from any reference to the point now under debate, and 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 185 


if judged of purely on the grownd of its intrinsic 
merits, carries home to our understandings and best 
feelings an irresistible impression of the goodness, 
wisdom, and simplicity of the writer. Search the 
entire compass of ethical writings, ancient and modern, 
we should not find even one that carries more decisively 
upon it the characteristics of sincerity, and truth- 
fulness. 

Why should 7, or why should the writer be otherwise 
thought of ? For no imaginable reason, only this, that 
if we allow him his due—then the plaintiff is very 
likely to be non-suited. 


The genuineness of the Epistle to the HEBREWs, and 
the integrity of the Text, are admitted by the highest 
critical authorities. Its antiquity is vouched for, at 
once by the usual external evidence, and by several 
allusions contained in it to the services of the Jewish 
Temple; and which indicate its publication before the 
destruction of Jerusalem. As to the authorship of this 
Epistle, Origen’s judgment may well be assented to 
—Irt, 76 piv vonwata tov anoctdron Ecru, H 68 opacis xat 7 
OvrbecLs Grouynuovevcortos TiWOS 7a énocromxa—and this al- 
lowed, it will take its place chronologically, in the last 
year, or two years, of the Apostle’s life. 

This composition is a theological treatise in its sub- 
stance; an epistle only in its form. It is just so far 
personal in its allusions as to give the whole.a more dis- 
tinctly historic character than it would derive from its 


argumentative portions: The writer speaks once and 
16* 


186 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


again of himself, and of his colleague Timothy ; ant he 
administers rebukes, freely and mildly, to those whom 
he addresses, as if personally acquainted with their reli- 
gious condition, and their attainments. 

These attainments fell short, it seems, of what might 
have been expected, opportunities of improvement con- 
sidered; nevertheless it is manifest that the writer sup- 
posed himself to be addressing persons who, as well in 
their biblical accomplishments, as in the keenness of 
their intellectual habits, vastly surpassed that average of 
mental power and learning which is to be found in our 
Protestant congregations. A verse-by-verse commentary, 
aided by all the stores of our modern biblical erudition, 
is not more than is needed to give even a well instructed 
and intelligent congregation a thorough comprehension 
of the reasoning of some parts of this Treatise. Those 
passages in it which, in their tone, rise above the tem- 
perature proper to biblical expository reasoning, are ~ 
those in which the calmness of heaven’s own atmosphere 
gives majesty to the language of the writer: of this 
sort are the opening verses of the treatise, and the 
middle portion of the twelfth chapter. 

‘This treatise—with its incidental allusions, its refer- 
ences to the then-existing Jewish economy, its tranquil 
and refined trains of argument, its pointed admonitions, 
its tone of serious intensity, is, in itself, an Historic 
Mass: it is a Reatiry of the Apostolic times ;—and 
as such it is competent to sustain whatever is found to 
be inseparably attached to it. 

The persons addressed were thoroughly conversant 
with Jewish institutions, as also with the conventional 
sense of those forms of speech which had their source 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 187 


in the Old Testament Scriptures, and which had long 
been familiar to the Jewish ear, through the medium of 
the Greek version. 

The writer, in his exordium, affirms the surpassing 
dignity of Hrm to whom the new dispensation owes its 
origin: and having done so, he draws the natural infer- 
ence, that a negligent regard to it will involve so much 
the more guilt and danger. This Gospel message which 
was first announced, he says, by the Lord, had+been con- 
firmed toward the Christians of that time by those who 
had heard Christ himself—‘ God bearing witness (to the 
truth of their testimony) with signs and wonders; and 
divers powers, and bestowments of the Holy Spirit, ac- 
cording to His pleasure.” 

To Jewish ears these phrases carried a conventional 
meaning that stood clear of all ambiguity: it is an 
authentic formula of the Old Testament, bringing recol- 
lections with it that embraced the staple of the national 
belief. Think what we may of the articles of that 
belief, these phrases recalled to the mind of the Jew 
of the apostolic age, that long series of miracles which 
had placed the people in a position of the nearest rela- 
tionship with God. The words and the combinations 
of them are identical throughout the Old Testament, 
and the New—Koi fSexe Kupuos onmetca xov vépatx meyana 
aes 2 ONMLELG KOL TH VEPATH MEAG EXELVOn.ceee0e ? they occur 
frequently in the Pentateuch, in the Psalms, and in the 
Prophets. They had come also into current use in the 
Christian community, in connexion with events admitted 
to be supernatural, as appears in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, throughout. 

Thus it is then that, in the course of a lengthened 


188 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


argumentation which discusses or alludes to a round of 
religious topics, bringing the ancient and the new 
economy into comparison in various points of view, 
there occurs one, and only one, affirmation concerning 
miracles; but then this one is perfectly explicit ; and 
it is so worded that the persons addressed could not 
misunderstand the writer. He affirms that those whe 
had been the hearers of Christ, and who had reported 
the Gospel message to the Christian converts of the 
then present time, had, in delivering this message, 
received the same sort of attestation from God himself, 
which had been granted to Moses and the Prophets. 

And as nothing vague could attach to the wording of 
this passage, and asit stands boldly prominent in a con- 
text of peculiar gravity, so did it receive a more than 
ordinary weight of meaning from the circumstances of 
the persons addressed. It was to the Jewish con- 
verts still resident in Palestine, that the treatise was 
primarily addressed, and through them, no doubt, 
to the same class of persons throughout the world. 
These Palestinian Jewish Christians, among whom there 
were surviving some who themselves had listened to 
Christ’s discourses, and had witnessed his miracles, 
Were in a position materially unlike that of the Gentile 
converts in distant countries. Not only were they resi- 
dent on the spot where the Evangelic history took its 
rise ; but they consorted every where with those of their 
countrymen who virulently denied the Messiahship of 
Jesus. The alleged miracles of that history were rife 
matters of debate—in Jewish’ families—in synagogues 
—in the market-places—on the high ways—ain the areas 
of the Temple. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 189 


How then do we purpose to deal with the fourth 
verse of the second chapter of this Epistle? There is 
no pretext for cutting it out of its place: it stands 
where it stands, unimpeachable on critical grounds. It 
attests this fact, first, that apostolic men—this writer 
at least—did not hesitate boldly to affirm the occurrence 
of miracles among those to whom the idea of such 
attestations of a message from God was intelligible and 


familiar. It-establishes also this fact, that Jewish con- 


verts of that time customarily admitted the reality of 
such occurrences. If they had not done so there could 
not have been room for an unexplained and ae sete: 
affirmation of them, such as this. 

If the alleged miracles of that time had been very 
few, and these few of ambiguous quality, and if they had 
barely been recognized by Palestinian converts, there 
would either have been no allusion to them (as there are 
none in fourteen of the apostolic epistles) or something 
would have been said of them in the style, either of 
apology, or of asseveration. This simply worded pas- 
sage of three lines would have been introduced or fol- 
lowed by averse or two of oblique insinuation, or of 
evasion, saving a way of escape for the writer. 

The question I put, in this instance, is this.—Sup- 
posing the alleged miracles of the apostolic period to be 
real, then is not this brief, bold, and unambiguous refer- 
ence to them just what is natural in the case of a writer 
who himself is conscious of truth, who knows that the 
phrases he employs carry a determinate biblical mean- 
ing, and who forecasts no contradiction ? 

This passage in this Epistle may be thrown out of its 
place, as to its historic import, by supposing that the 


190 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


writer was a man of that class who, devoid alike of shame 
and of sensibility, allow themselves to use boastful ex 
pressions, at random, which are well understood to have 
no meaning—vauntings, which are the mere expletives 
of arambling rhapsody, forgotten as soon as uttered, 
and disregarded when heard. 

Tell me plainly, do you profess this to be your judg 
ment in this case? 


The EpistLE to the Romans is also a Treatise rather 
than an Epistle ; its authenticity and genuineness are 
out of question; or if you would fortify your English 
distaste of the frivolities of German criticism, acquaint 
yourself with that tissue of surmises on the ground of 
which the genuineness of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
chapters has been questioned. The continuity of 
thought, running on from the fourteenth into the fif. 
teenth chapter, and thence to the end of the Epistle, 
is irresistibly conspicuous. The thought and the lan- 
guage are all of a piece, from the first verse to the last 
of this Treatise. Why then determine otherwise? Be- 
cause the gratification of a pedantic ambition, and the 
craving for paradox may find a momentary oppor tiiiag 
in an instance of this sort. 

With the theology of this Epistle I have nothing to 
do at this time; nor with the ethical portions of it, 
unless to say, in passing, that, following as they do as 
inferences from the theology, they present to us an 
instance most remarkable, of an equipoise of principles, 
not logically wrought out, but springing from a har- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 191 


mony that is loftier and deeper than the range of mun- 
dane speculation. 

But now find me any where a sample of practical 
good sense more striking than is that presented in the 
fourteenth chapter, and running on into the next. 
These six and twenty verses, if they had been duly 
regarded on every occasion to which they might right- 
fully have been applied, in the course of eighteen centu 
ries, would have exempted the loaded shelf opposite me, 
just now, from the weight of at least ten of the folios 
of the Acta ConcrLionuM. But great principles, when 
simply announced, demand cycles of time for getting 
themselves recognized—cycles as long almost as geolo- 
gical eras. 

This Epistie, like the one last named, contains one, 
and only one affirmation as to the miracles, as events 
then occurring. But this one averment is, like that last 
referred to, explicit, and bold, and it is unaccompanied 
by any expletive or extenuating phrases. It goes fur- 
ther, however, in relation to my present argument, than 
the passage cited from the Epistle to the Hebrews. In 
that, the writer does not affirm for himself the exercise 
of miraculous gifts: in this he does so very distinctly. 
In this Epistle, “Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ ”’ 
stands before us ina clear historic light, connecting him- 
self with the supernatural. Up to the time of writing 
it, he had not made proof of his ministry among the 
Christians of Rome. He had long been wishing to do 
so, and he now believed that, at no very remote time, 
this, his Christian wish, might be accomplished; for 
after he had fulfilled his immediate intention of visiting 
Jerusalem, he hoped to make his way into Spain, and 


192 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


to see Rome in passing. His course of evangelic 
labour, hitherto, had occupied more time than, perhaps, 
he had calculated upon; for he had taken a very wide | 
circuit in adhering to his rule, not to build on another 
man’s foundation. 

Thus he had gone preaching the Gospel throughout 
all the countries intervening, landwise, between Jerusa- 
Jem and Italy. Many, in these regions, had listened to 
him, and had become “obedient to the faith;” yet it 
had not been by preaching alone that these successes 
had been won ; for it was by “word and deed” that the 
people had been persuaded to forsake their idols. From 
“Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum,’’ he 
had (every where and) in a complete manner, made pro- 
clamation of the Gospel; and in doing so he had given 
proof of the reality of his mission by “ mighty signs 
and wonders,” which Christ had wrought by his hands. 

This noted affirmation has often been adduced by 
Christian advocates; yet there may be room for me to 
bring the facts once again under review; as thus.— 

The resort of Jews to Rome, and the access which 
they had gained for themselves to persons of all ranks, 
even the highest, had been the means of introducing 
many to a knowledge of the Scriptures, in a Greek ver- 
sion. Among these “ devout persons’’—Gentiles by birth 
and habit, Christianity rapidly made converts ; and un- 
impeachable evidence attests the fact that, in Nero’s 
reign, the number of Christians at Rome was very great. 

These Gentile converts were all conversant with the 
Old Testament history, and were accustomed to the 
recitation of the Psalms, and to the hearing of the Pro- 
phets. This sort of familiarity with biblical history, and 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 193 


w:th the phraseology of the Scriptures, undoubtedly 
belonged to those to whom were addressed the now 
extant non-canonical epistles of the first and second 
centuries. 

Besides; the Epistle to the Romans itself furnishes 
abundant evidence of the diffusion of this amount of 
biblical knowledge among those to whom it is addressed, 
Gentiles as well as Jews. St. Paul now writes to these 
converts, announcing his intention to visit them shortly. 
He tells them that he had lately been employed preach- 
ing the Gospel in many provinces of the empire. He 
speaks too of the miracles that had every where given 
efficacy to his preaching ; and in doing so he uses that one 
set of phrases to which the ears of the people had been 
long accustomed, and which, in their minds, stood con- 
nected with the notable miracles of the Old Testament 
history. In using this particular form of words, St. 
Paul perfectly knew in what sense they would be under- 
stood when the Epistle was read in the Christian con- 
gregations of Rome. 

These congregations, numbering hundreds of persons, 
if not thousands, were told that they were soon to see 
and hear this noted preacher of the Gospel who, in his 
course from city to city of the Roman world, had 
wrought miracles of such a kind that the phrase “mighty 
signs and wonders,” might with propriety be applieé to 
them. 

But at length this Preacher, he having appealed to 
Czesar’s tribunal, reaches Rome: he stays there a length 
of time: in what manner then does he meet and satisfy 
those expectations which he had himself excited among 
the people? This we are not told. But it appears that 

yi : 


194 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


he found his countrymen there, or the greater part of 
them, ill-affected toward the new religion, and more dis- 
posed to listen to those many reports to its disadvan- 
tage which had reached them, than to his arguments in 
its favour. An open breach soon takes place between 
the gainsaying Jews of Rome, and this Preacher of the 
Gospel, who denounces, and in fact, defies them. 

What would next follow may be surmised; but let 
us assume that the passage above cited in the Epistle 
meant nothing—or nothing that would bear inquiry: 
the words were a mere flourish—a rhetorical grace! 
Neither did this Preacher show any “signs or wonders” 
at Rome, answerable to the kindled expectations of the 
people; nor did those who, from time to time, arrived 
from the provinces he had evangelized, bring with them 
authentic or credible reports of any such miracles as 
those which the language of the writer implied. What 
effect so great a disappointment as this must have pro- 
duced among the Christian people of Rome, I will not 
venture to affirm. Let it only be remembered that 
these newly professed Christians were of three classes, 
namely—/irst, Jewish converts having constantly to do 
in their homes, with those of their countrymen who were 
virulently opposed to the Gospel, and who were now the 
irritated personal enemies of Paul ;—secondly, Gentile 
converts, from the populace of Rome, whose natural 
eagerness to witness “‘signs and wonders”? had been 
whetted by Paul himself; and—thirdly, a few persons 
of rank and education, about the Court, who, in com- 
promising themselves with the new sect, even in the 
most cautious manner, had risked every thing—life, as 
well as fortune. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 195 


In what way these several classes of believers were 
affected when, after a three or four years suspense, they 
found that, in fact, no miracles were to be looked for in 
attestation of this preacher’s mission, or in justification 
of his own professions, we do not know. 

But what we do know is this—that, three or four 
years later, there were Christians enough in Rome to 
slake the ferocity of Nero—even the—multitudo ingens, 
of Tacitus. 

Now this “‘ vast multitude’’—or let us take the words 
in their lowest probable meaning, whatever that may be 
—had either professed Christianity at the time when 
the Epistle from Paul reached them, or else there had 
been a great accession of converts during the interven- 
ing three or four years. 

If we take the first-named of these suppositions then 
one must think it a serious matter (if we know any thing 
of popular excitability) to disappoint the—multitudo 
ingens in regard to these promised supernatural attesta- 
tions. Knowing that he must disappoint the multitude 
at Rome in this very manner, then the boldness of the 
language in which, only a few days after his arrival, he 
defies the Jews, and makes his appeal to the Gentiles is 
indeed amazing. ACTS, xxviii. 

But we now take up the second of these suppositions, 
and assume that, though the Christians of Rome had 
been few when the Epistle before us reached them, the 
—multitudo ingens had been “added to the Church” 
after the occurrence of this signal disappointment, and 
after the time when the gainsaying Jew had been put 
in a triumphant position, and was warranted in defying 
this Preacher to make good his written pretensions! Is 


196 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


this then our supposition? ‘To me a belief in the 
Christian miracles is far more easy. 


ONE affirmation only, concerning miracles, we have 
found in the Epistle to the Hebrews; one in that to the 
Romans; one in the Epistle to the Galatians; one in 
the second Epistle tv the Corinthians. In each of these 
single instances the allusion is cursory; it arises out of 
the occasion, and it is firmly agglutinated with the con- 
text. Moreover to each of these instances there attaches 
some special circumstance, rendering this sort of cate- 
gorical averment in a high degree dangerous, if, in 
fact, it had been liable to any sort of exception. It was 
so, peculiarly, in the instance now in band. 

Throughout the scattered societies of GALATIA, and 
among a people remarkable for the fickleness of their 
dispositions, and for their proneness to be led and 
driven by demagogues, the apostolic authority of St. 
Paul had been set at defiance, or was openly impugned, 
while the doctrine he had taught was denounced. Up 
and down throughout this province, and scattered 
among its obscure towns, where they could not be 
followed, there were, as the writer of this Epistle 
knew, those who stood forward as his personal ene- 
mies, and who were ready to catch an advantage 
against him. 

Nevertheless, in the bosom of these distracted socie- 
ties there were some to whose better feelings he might 
still appeal—some there were who adhered to the evan- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 197 


gelic doctrine—some who professed and contended for 
the ‘‘ faith once delivered”? to them. We must infer 
also from the expression 6 of» éwiydpynyay dpiv...... that 
there was one Teacher among the Galatian converts 
who continued to maintain that foremost article of the 
Christian system which was its characteristic, as con- 
trasted with the Pharisaic Judaism of the times, and 
which, in this epistle, St. Paul expounds anew. The 
position of this one Teacher, in the midst of the gene- 
ral defection, must have been that of antagonism ; 
and it was with him, as we may infer from the 
phrases used, that remained the power of working 
miracles. 

The appeal made to the supernatural endowments 
of this one Teacher (if our inference from the form 
of expression be historically right) was in the highest 
degree fearless. But whether or not an Individual so 
distinguished, be here intended, or whether the apostle, 
though using the present tense, means to remind the 
people of his own ministrations among them, in times 
past, this brief challenge is in the style of one who 
feels that he risks no contradiction, as to the matter 
of fact; he says, Are ye then indeed so unwise? after 
accepting Christianity as a spiritual system, are ye 
now going back to a system of bodily observances ? 
Has it then been to no purpose (as the professors of a 
spiritual doctrine) that ye have suffered so much (at 
the hands of Jewish fanatics) if indeed it has been to 
no purpose! Or answer me now this question—He 
(the Teacher) who now ministers to you the gifts of the 
Spirit, and who works miracles among you—xai 6 évepywv 
dvrduecs—is he a teacher of the legalizing doctrine? or 


i 


198 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


does he not maintain the doctrine of salvation by faita, 
which I am now explaining to you anew ? 

This question followed hard upon a taunt, the pun- 
gency of which finds no parallel in the other epistles of 
this writer, affectionate and courteous too, as he is. 
He calls these Galatians dd ro. ; and he asks who it is 
that has so far abused their folly as actually to bereave 
them of their senses ? 

No inference which I judge to be important is 
dependant upon what may be a questionable paraphrase 
of this passage. The fact is enough that St. Paul, to 
whom the recollection of his miraculous powers does 
not ever occur when he is addressing his attached 
friends, boldly affirms them, or affirms the same gifts 
in his colleagues, when he descends among his adver- 
saries. This he does when, as in the present instance, 
he intends to keep no terms of amity with his oppo- 
nents; and he does the same whether the tempers he 
had to do with were more or less virulent. 

Note this fact, that those of the epistles of St. Paul 
which contain affirmations of the supernatural, are 
those in which he encounters his adversaries, and admi- 
nisters sharp rebukes, even to his attached adherents. 
It is also to be observed that, when we name those 
of his fourteen epistles which are the most distinctly 
marked with the historic characteristics of genuine- 
ness, we are naming also those in which he affirms 
the present occurrence of miracles. It is thus that 
the purely historic and the supernatural are, as one 


may say, inseparably rivetted together in these 
writings. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 199 


It is so in the two Epistles to the Christian people 
of CorintH. If there be any thing at all that has 
come down to us from antiquity, whole and unques- 
tionable, these two epistles will take a place among such 
Suoroyovmera 3 and if in any instance an ancient writer 
has spread himself out, and opened the door of his 
heart to our inspection, St. Paul has done so in these 
two epistles. 

I take up first, the second epistle, containing as it 
does one passage that is applicable to my immediate 
purpose. This is the twelfth verse of the twelfth 
chapter. 

There might be room to think that the remarkable 
passage with which this same chapter commences, 
should also be named as an affirmation of the super- 
natural. It is so in reality; but it is not so in a 
logical sense; or as bearing out the inference upon 
which I have to insist. The sort of affirmations I am 
in quest of are those in support of which the writer 
may appeal, and does so, to the knowledge of those 
whom he addresses. St. Paul, in this case, necessarily, 
affirms only what belonged to his individual expe- 
rience; he declares that thus he had been favoured 
with two extraordinary revelations; but though the 
mention of them is proper to the occasion, they are 
not to be adduced as logically available in the present 
instance. 

Compelled as he was by the audacity of his oppo- 
nents at Corinth to assert, and to vindicate, his apos- 
tolic authority, he reminds the people there of the 
circumstances that had attended his ministrations 
among them; and he says that, feeble as he might be 


200 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


in himself, he had in no respect shown himself inferior 
to the most noted of the Apostles; for the wonted 
attestations of an apostolic commission had been 
wrought (not simply affirmed) among them, with all 
submissiveness of manner, év onwetous xa répace xoi Svvamsoe. 
Here again we have the customary biblical formula, 
and in its more expanded expression. 

We now turn to the first epistle to the ConINTHTIANS. 
In that one passage in the epistle to the Hebrews 
which links it to the supernatural, the persons ad- 
dressed are reminded that they had witnessed miracles, 
wrought by those from whose lips they had received the 
Gospel message. In the epistle to the Romans, the 
writer affirms of hzmself that he had wrought miracles 
in the course of his late missionary journeys. In the 
epistle to the Churches of Galatia he appeals to the 
miracles that were then frequently wrought among 
themselves. In the second epistle to the Corinthians 
he speaks of the miracles wrought by himself during 
his stay at Corinth. In this first epistle he speaks, 
at large and particularly, and with perfect freedom, 
of the existence and exercise of miraculous gifts anne 
themselves. 

He tells them generally (i. 7) that they had been 
wanting in no gift—éy wydevt yaplouari...... with which 
other churches had been favoured. These gifts he 
specifies (xii. 4) mingling those which are ordinary with 
the supernatural; and this is so done as if to weave 
the two elements together in a fabric the materials 
of which should not be severed. ‘To one among you 
is granted, by the same spirit—wisdom—to another 
knowledge ;—to one faith, to another charisms for 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 201 


healing, to another energies for mighty works—to 
another prophecy, to another the discrimination of 
spirits (or knowledge of character) to another (the com- 
mand of) several languages;—to another the inter- 
pretation of languages.”’ 

Further on the writer enumerates—apparently in 
the order of their relative importance in his view, the 
functions which were constituted, and which were then 
in exercise in the Church; as thus—first, that of apos- 
tles; next of prophets (or teachers), then instructors, 
or masters of classes. After these come the functions 
of those who were endowed with miraculous powers, 
gifts of healing—faculties of administration, and 
management, and the command of languages. The 
order which prevails in these enumerations deserves 
attention. 

Between this more general declaratory passage, and 
those injunctions which a disorderly practice had called 
for, there comes a parenthesis—an entire chapter— 
luminous with good sense: ought we not to acknow- 
ledge this, and risk the consequence? If now it be 
Heaven’s wisdom, of which we have such a sample, 
supernaturally granted to this writer, we need hold no 
further argument concerning Christianity. But if it be 
the writer’s natural wisdom which here shines out, then 
how shall we make it consist with the supposition of 
the tumid extravagance of his mind: or of any imagin- 
able condition of conscious falseness in his professions 
or conduct? But we have to mark here that these 
thirteen verses, teeming as they do with the very sub- 
stance of ethical truth, and exhibiting so correct a 
sense of ethical distinctions, come in as a corrective 


202 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


of that natural error from which we have found the 
apostolic writers to be themselves wholly exempt—lI 
mean the error of thinking more of miracles than of 
morality—more of “signs and wonders,” than of 
temper and behaviour. If four or five of these gifted 
Corinthian converts had left us so many as one-and- 
twenty of their letters and treatises, I think we should 
not have found fourteen of them destitute of a single 
affirmation as to their own command of the super- 
natural; nor the remaining seven, each with nothing 
more than a brief and solitary allusion of this kind. 

But a word more should be said on this occasion. 
This thirteenth chapter of the epistle before us is a 
parenthesis, linking the purely historic instructions | 
which precede it, with other insructions, having relation 
to a misapplication of supernatural endowments. Here 
then we have the simply historic, or natural, blended 
and bound up with the supernatural, in such a manner 
as to defy the endeavour to separate the two. In the 
instances hitherto adduced I have noticed the iron rivet- 
ting of these two elements: in the present instance I 
ask, Is not this tie a bolt of the purest gold? 

The rule I adhere to is to lay no stress upon any 
matter that is controverted among well-informed and 
reasonable critics and commentators. Now a great . 
cloud of difficulty has been made to settle over the sub- 
ject treated of in the fourteenth chapter of this Epistle; 
so that what might seem quite intelligible when one 
reads the Greek without assistance, has become an 
enigma, after erudite criticism has shed its best light 
upon it! Just now therefore I will say no more con- 
cerning the “Gift of Tongues” than this—That St. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 203 


Paul himself does manifestly regard this power as a 
miraculous gift; and as such he explicitly affirms his 
own participation in it:—rejoicing in the copiousness 
of the faculty which he exercised, he says—‘ I thank 
my God I speak with tongues more than you all.” 
What was it then that he thus thought of with devout 
gratitude? Was it that knowledge of Hebrew (or the 
Aramaic) of Greek and of Latin—which he had 
acquired at ‘Tarsus in his boyhood? Or was it the 
power of pouring forth a mindless gibberish, intelligible 
to no tribe of men on earth? 

It is enough that, in this passage, while the apostle 
exhibits his usual good sense, and his feeling of what is 
practically best, he speaks without hesitation of that 
which he regarded as supernatural. 


CONCLUSION AS TO THE SEVEN EPISTLES WHICH 
AFFIRM MIRACLES. 


I HAVE now taken in their order those documents of 
the Canon which contain an affirmation, of, or allusion 
to, miracles, as currently taking place under the eye 
of the writer, or of those whom he addresses. I have 
especially given attention to those five epistles of St. 
Paul which are distinguished from the nine of the same 
writer that are free from any reference to the super- 
natural. 

I have pointed out these three circumstances attach- 
ing to these epistles, namely, first, that they are those 
which, if there be any difference, stand the clearest of 
any suspicion of spuriousness; secondly, that three of 
these epistles are those of the entire number—four- 
teen—which are addressed to societies that had har- 
boured or listened to, the personal enemies of the 
apostles, and in addressing which the greatest caution 
was needed ;—and thirdly, that, if the first Epistle to 
the Corinthians be excepted—the affirmation of miracles | 
is confined to a single utterance, which is brief, distinct, 
‘and peremptory 

I have also drawn your attention to the fact—that, 
in each of these instances, that authenticated form of 
words is employed in relation to which misinterpreta- 


(204) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 205 


tion was impossible, and to which a clearly defined 
historical sense had come to be attached. 

But I will now imagine that, instead of employing 
this biblical formula, which none of those who were 
accustomed to the Greek version of the Old Testament 
could misunderstand, St. Paul had gone about in quest 
of a phrase which might be susceptible of a rather less 
rigid interpretation: let us suppose him to have used a 
phrase of abstract coinage—bordering upon the philo- 
sophical, and which the better-educated among his 
readers might so have interpreted as to leave a margin 
of indistictness whereupon the writer might, at least in 
the view of sweh readers, clear himself of the charge 
of direct falsification. ‘T’o me it seems perfectly certain 
that a religious leader in the position of this writer, if 
he had been conscious that the “ miracles” of which he 
spoke must, when narrowly looked into by his adversa- 
ries, melt away into any thing or nothing—into mere 
exaggerations of natural occurrences, would have bor- 
rowed or forged a phrase adapted to his purpose; and 
that he would most carefully have avoided that par- 
ticular form of words, which, in the minds of all, 
carried an indubitable meaning of the largest import. 

Let us now imagine that St. Paul, who had no nar- 
row acquaintance with the resources of the Greek 
language, had employed, when speaking of the miracles 
that were lately wrought by himself, or his colleagues, 
some one of those very phrases which his erudite 
countryman and contemporary, PHrILo, does actually 
use on analagous occasions. For example, if instead 
of the répara xat onueta, and the several phrases (all of 
biblical usage) which he does apply to his own miracles, 

18 


206 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


he had given us a form like the following, with an 
evasive expletive inserted, TEpaoT LOY dé pace ouuBnvar xar” 
Exetvoy TOY YpOVOYs MEYAROVPYNUA TUS PVIEWS...... or that he had 
apologised for these miracles, as Putio does elsewhere 
in his life of Moses. If it had been so, there might: 
have been room for a supposition for which, in fact, 
there is now no room. ‘The biblical form, used when 
miracles of the most amazing kind are intended to be 
spoken of, had, in the apostolic time, come to be applied 
customarily to the miracles of the evangelic history ; 
as appears from the Gospels. Moreover the same set 
of words occurs thirteen times in the ACTS OF THE 
APOSTLES, always carrying the same indubitable sense. 
Once only, in speaking of such events, does the writer 
employ a different form (xix. 11) where it is—dvvapers 
ob ras rvyovoas énoier 6 Ocds...... Lhe form is the same in the 
Apocryphal books, as in the Epistles (Wispom, vii. 8, 
x. 16, Ecctus. xlviii. 14) in the Prophets; (JEREM 
xxxii. 20, Dan. vi. 27) in the Psaums; cv. 27, evi. 1; 
and the Pentateuch, very frequently :—Exop. ii. 20,— 
BOS, 2S ASCvoectse« TG ONLELG MOV, xal TH Tépara év yy 
Alyvn7@..... Xs 2, Num. xiv. lt DEUT. ly. 34,—xal éy 
ONMELOLS, KGL EV TEPAOL 20... V1. 22, Kai Yaxe Kupeos onweta xaos 
cépara meyara xat rovnpa gy Aiyunto...... vil. 19, 7a onueta xow 
TH MEYAAG EXELYOr+ eee. XXXIV. x "Ey mace rovs onerous xow 
TEPATW sss eee 

There are those who, professing to admire the char- 
acter of Paul, would gladly bring him off clear of the 
imputation of having compromised himself with the 
supernatural, if it could be done. Looking to these five 
epistles this attempt might perhaps have been made if 
only he had been careful to avoid this biblical formula, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 207 


and had taken up in its place, any vague abstraction 
of the kind of which samples enough may be found in 
Philo, in Josephus, and in several of the classical 
writers, when speaking of prodigies. 

Let us now inquire by what means, if there are any, 
the supernatural might be severed from the mass of 
historic document to which we find it attached. 

These means must be such as do not in any way 
violate the authentic rules of philological or_ historical 
criticism. An attempted violation of such rules could 
be prompted by nothing but an ill intention; and as in 
this argument I impute no bad motives to an opponent, 
I am saved the disagreeable necessity of rebutting any 
supposition of that class. 

Now we first narrow our ground by putting out of 
view those fourteen epistles upon which we find no par- 
ticles of the supernatural adhering. We need mot 
inquire how to exclude miracles from writings in which, 
in fact, none are affirmed. 

These fourteen epistles are of a purely historical 
character: each of them comes into our hands bearing 
its own credentials, separately from the others. Even 
-if ten of them could be shown to be spurious, the others 
stand their ground; but instead of this, a mere shadow 
of doubt is all that attaches to two or three of the 
number: and even these avail as much in argument 
when imagined to be forgeries, as when admitted to be 
genuine. 

Here then is foundation ample enough to sustain my 
Belief, as a Christian: I am willing to take my stand 
upon it; and never shall I be driven from this footing. 
Tf I have thoroughly informed myself concerning the 


208 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


Christianity of the age of the Antonines—reading the 
entire extant evidence—Christian and Antichristian— 
then, in these fourteen epistles I find whatever should 
be there, on the supposition that this great revolution 
which has placed the civilized portion of the human fam- 
ily on new ground, was real and true in its origin, and 
that it was THE WORK OF GoD. The present question 
then relates solely to those Seven Epistles which imbed 
our problem. 

Now these might be disposed of if, in a critical sense, 
they were decisively of inferior quality; but they are 
not so: on the contrary, they are those (one excepted) 
concerning which there has been, and is, the least dif- 
ference of opinion among critics. 

Or the supernatural paragraphs in these epistles 
might be excinded if, on any ground that is recognized 
by legitimate criticism, these sentences stood as inter- 
polations. It is not so. On the contrary, as to most 
of them, these verses are woven into the context, before 
and after, and are one with the body of the epistle. 

And yet, even admitting the genuineness of these 
passages, we might incline to attach an abated impor- 
tance to them if any one of the following suppositions 
could be entertained. If they occurred in those epistles 
only which are addressed to the writer’s colleagues, or 
to societies of whose attachment to himself, and to 
Christianity, he was perfectly assured. But the very 
contrary of this is the fact. 

—If, instead of these few peremptory affirmations, we 
found a diffuse, turgid, and careless allusion to miracles 
on almost every page of the twenty-one epistles. The 
contrary of this, also, is the fact. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 209 


—If, instead of employing, in these few instances, 
the well-understood biblical formula, to which an his- 
toric sense had come immovably to adhere, the writers 
had quietly let themselves down through the medium of 
two or three vague phrases, of which they might soon 
have found the type in several writers of that age. The 
contrary of this also is the fact. | 

The only remaining supposition which occurs to me 
as at all admissible, if our purpose be to set aside these 
passages, is this—That, as no miracles are specified, and 
as no narratives of this kind are given in these epistles, 
it is not certainly to be inferred that the writers wished 
themselves to be understood in any very definite sense, 
when they thus vaguely affirm such to have occurred. 
So we might perhaps suppose if no other Christian wri- 
tings of the apostolic age had come into our hands. 
But an undoubted book—containing many such narra- 
tives, is before us. I abstain from an examination of 
this Book—the Acts—at present, and turn to it only 
for 2 moment, as it stands related to the supposition 
just named: and I affirm first— 

—That the historical relationship of this Book to the 
Pauline Epistles has been so exhibited, in modern times, 
as should exclude all question as to the genuineness of 
either—the history, or the so related, epistles ; secondly : 

—That, in this book, as I have already said, the for- 
mula which occurs in the epistles occurs also—and as 
often as thirteen times, and in connection, each time, 
with narratives of miraculous events. In what sense 
these phrases were understood in the apostolic times is 
thus put out of doubt by this employment of them in 
such a connection. 


Lom 


210 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


I affirm therefore, that the apostles do implicate them- 
selves with the supernatural element of Christianity, 
and that they do it in the most formal and distinct man- 
ner possible; and that therefore it is only by violent 
means that the supernatural can be severed from the 
historical, as the two stand connected in the Christian 
documents. 

What those means are which, in this case, ought to be 
regarded as “‘ violent,’ and should therefore be rejected, 
may easily be determined. ‘To solve the problem of 
Christianity by force is to admit some supposition, or to 
listen to an imputation to which a cultured and well 
ordered mind will never reconcile itself; and which 
would never be advanced, at all, by minds of any class, 
except at the impulse of some urgent argumentative 
necessity. 

I bring this to an issue thus :— 

Make the effort requisite for putting yourself men-— 
tally into the position of one who, as yet knows nothing 
of Christianity. I put into your hands, in succession, 
the fourteen Non-Supernatural Epistles—You sponta- 
/neously say of them, ‘‘ Whatever I may think of this 
Theology, which is so new and amazing, it is manifest 
that these writings embody, with great harmony of 
intention, an elevated and consistent morality; it would 
be well for the world if it would receive it. It is also 
manifest that the writers, whether they be right or 
wrong in their religious belief, are sincere in their pro- 
fessions of it:—it appears also that they are sober 
minded, and of good judgment ;—it is clear that they 
are earnestly affected in relation to whatever is of un- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. paral 


doubted importance, and that they treat slightingly 
what we feel to be indifferent.” 

Thus far then you will not affirm that any of those 
sinister imputations which you hold in reserve for solv- 
ing the problem of Christianity, would spontaneously be 
suggested to you in the course of your New Testament 
reading. But you next peruse the five above mentioned, 
epistles of St. Paul; or you take up the Epistle to the 
Romans. In reaching the close of it you are startled 
to find the writer, with whose inmost thoughts you 
had become familiar, boldly affirming that, in a mission- 
ary circuit of several hundred miles, he had wrought 
miracles, in each town and city as he passed. 

Under the perplexity that has thus arisen, I direct 
your attention to those several conditions attaching to 
this case which I have just above specified. These, if 
they are considered as they should be, and if we reject 
unintelligible evasions—myths, and shifts ;—rejecting, 
in fact, what a well constituted English mind must and 
will reject as frivolous, impertinent, vapourous, and 
absurd, then our alternative is just this.— 

To yield our belief to Christianity, as a supernatural 
dispensation ;—or, To suppose, I do not well know 
how to put such a supposition into words—that the 
apostolic men, not one of them, but all, stand asa 
class by themselves, of which no other samples have 
occurred among the myriad varieties of the species ; 
for they are wise and mad—they are always virtu- 
ous and wicked—they are prudent and absurd—in 
an extreme degree, and they are at all times con- 
sistently inconsistent with themselves, and with hu- 
man nature. 


212 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


Language has been framed for expressing things that 
are, or things that may be intelligibly conceived of. 
You will therefore find an extreme difficulty in attempt- 
ing to give me, in any definite shape, your own idea of 
the apostles, the facts duly taken into the account, on 
the supposition that no miracles were wrought in attes- 
tation of their ministry. In this attempt you will never 
succeed, to your own satisfaction. 

I will not tell you that your supposition as to the 
apostolic character is ‘‘ uncharitable,”’ is “‘ unwarranta- 
ble,” is “ungenerous,” and the-like ; for I am content 
to tell you what is simply the fact, That it is a jumble 
of incoherencies to which no semblance of moral, or of 
immoral unity can be given. I do not tell you that 
your conception is wrong and unfair ;—for it is no con- 
ception at all—it is a naked absurdity! I will return 
to this subject at any time if only you will put before 
me, in a form which I can understand, your idea of the 
apostles—all the facts allowed for, on the hypothesis of 
DISBELIEF. 


THE FORCE OF CONGRUITY, IN RELATION TO CHRISTI- 


ANITY AND ITS MIRACLES. 


_ Ir would next come in order to bring under consider- 
ation those Five Books of the New Testament which 
contain narratives of miracles, blended with ordinary 
history, and with discourses—showing in detail, that, 
throughout these books, the supernatural and the his- 
torical are indissolubly commingled. This might soon 
be shown; but I abstain from this open path for two 
reasons; first, because the demolition of Rationalism 
by Strauss, and its abandonment generally, supersedes 
the necessity for showing that the evangelic miracles 
cannot be explained away in the manner that was 
attempted by the German writers of that school. But 
beside this reason, as I propose to bring before you this 
same supernatural element, considered.in a very differ- 
ent light, I wish to avoid the irksomeness of going over 
the same ground twice, although it would be for differ- 
ent purposes. 

I must repeat what I have already said, p. 97, just 
so far as to remind you that those of our convictions 
upon which we are accustomed to act with the most 
unhesitating confidence, and to which we commend our- 
selves without fear, when life itself, or estate, is at risk, 


are not, or seldom are, those which we may obtain by 
(218) 


914 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


processes of catenary deduction ; or by a course of rea- 
soning which, in a technical sense, is logical. It is not 
so. Man, such as we find him on the beaten road of real 
life, is no such syllogistic automaton as that he should 
bring propositions in threes to bear upon the business 
and conduct of every day. Pedants do this, and break 
their heads in consequence. It is by the force of con- 
gruous evidence—it is by help of wind and tide together, 
that we launch upon the dangerous atlantic of life, and 
cross it in confidence, and reach port in safety. 

The vast difference, as to its bearing upon our prin- 
ciples of action, and our every-day habitudes, between 
catenary reasoning, and THE FORCE OF CONGRUITY is 
felt in the instance of the argument concerning Chris- 
tianity more than perhaps in any other case that could 
be named. Let it be that, with favourable impressions 
on the side of Christianity, and with a sincere wish to 
confirm ourselves in our religious belief, we carefully 
read one or two of the best modern books on the ‘ Kvi- 
dences.”” We follow the reasoning, from page to page, 
and we yield our assent to it, feeling it to be entirely 
conclusive. ‘To frame a reply to this chain of proofs 
in any manner that should be satisfactory to ourselves, 
we know to be impossible. And yet a few days after 
closing the book the upshot of the perusal of it has 
been to leave us—not in a state of logical indecision, 
but only of discomfort and depression, as to our con- 
victions; and we almost wish we had not attempted 
thus to convince ourselves. 

We need not go far to find the reason of such a 
result. Those who read books on the ‘ Evidences”’ in 
the favourable mood which I am now supposing, per- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 215 


fectly know that, if Christianity be true it is not an 
abstract speculation, but a practical concernment for 
every day, and that among the many claimants upon 
our attention, this one claim stands foremost. But now 
the reasoning of the book we have just read is out of 
harmony with the machinery of real life; for a man 
does not act at a prompting of this sort. The argument, 
although it be irrefragable, comes upon us cross-grained 
as to all our habitudes as deliberative and spontaneous 
beings. In fact—after several failures in the endeavour 
to feel and act as Christian men, on the ground of argu- 
ment, among the things and persons of the real world, 


' we return the book on the “‘ Evidences” to a high shelf 


—forget it, except to lend it to a perplexed friend, 
and for ourselves, resume our Christian consciousness: 
unconsciously, but really, we go back to those undefined 


moral congruzties which heretofore have sustained our 


belief; and we abandon proofs in line. 

Nevertheless as often as we return to the subject as 
a matter of argument, we find ourselves in a position 
of disadvantage. At a point far removed from the eye, 
and at the end of a vista of logical evidences, we get 
our view of the miracles of Evangelic history. For 


a length of time we have been fixing the eye upon the 


supernatural, as it appears when seen in this perspec- 
tive; just as one might gaze upon a sunrise, seen 
through the bare trunks and naked branches of a wintry 
forest. Yet this aspect of these objects is not merely 
remote and accidental; but it produces an impression 
which is substantially untrue. 

Without any very difficult effort of the mind, I can 
imagine myself to occupy a position whence I should 


216 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


look upon the miracles of the Evangelic History in 
their immediate proximity to those things with which, 
actually, they always stood connected. I should then 
see the SUPERNATURAL in its relationship to the INFI- 
NITE, which is its true relation. When I place myself 
in this position I at once discern the reason of that 
which otherwise is unaccountable, I mean the fact 
already noticed, that the apostolic men, though they 
declare themselves to be conversant with miracles, yet 
so seldom, and with such brevity, mention them. From 
this position, moreover, that perfect simplicity, and 
that calmness which has been so often remarked as the 
characteristic of the Gospels, when miracles are nar-— 
rated, appears only natural and proper. 

There are three mental conditions, easily distinguish- 
able from each other, in which I can imagine an 
indubitable miracle to be witnessed. The first is that 
of medieval credulity—or an incurious, unreasoning, i 
inconsequential passiveness, to which all things, natural 
and supernatural, come alike, and pass away without 
leaving an impression. The second state is that of our 
modern, dry, cold, sophisticated, scientific temper ;— 
scientific more than philosophical. Witnessed in this 
mood, a miracle would astound us—it would just curdle 
the brain, and produce no effect whatever upon the 
moral nature. 3 

But I can form an idea of a mental condition as much 
unlike the first of these two states, a8 the second. I 
can imagine myself to have come into a discernment of 
those unchanging realities of the spiritual and moral 
system which endeed affect my welfare, present and 
future; so that the witnessing of a miracle would pro- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 217 
duce a feeling entirely congruous with such percep- 
tions; and would neither astound nor agitate the mind. 
I can imagine myself to have so profound a sense of 
primary moral truths as that miracles would be con- 
fiuent with the deep movements of the soul, and would 
produce no surge. I can imagine myself to have such 
& prospect of the plains of immortality—a prospect 
moral, not fanciful, not sensuous, as that the spectacle 
of the raising of the dead should assort itself with my 
feelings. So to see “death swallowed up in victory,” 
would excite no amazement. I read this very quietness 
in the apostolic epistle; and it sheds the steady bright- 
ness of the morning upon St. Paul’s discourse concern- 
ing the resurrection. This great fact, concerning the 
destiny of man,-which he there expounds, I also hold 
to be a truth, undoubted. But if, beside thus believing 
it with my modern logical persuasion, if instead of this 
belief, I had St. Paul’s sight and consciousness of it, 
then, like him, I could speak of miracles briefly, firmly, 
and without a note of wonder. 

The miracles of the evangelic history, come to us 
with the force of Conarurry, just so far as we can 
bring ourselves morally within the splendour of those 
eternal verities which are of the substance of the Gos- 
pel. While we stand remote from that illuminated field, 
they are to us only a galling perplexity; for we can 
neither rid ourselves of the evidence that attests them ; 
nor are prepared to yield ourselves to it. At this mo- 
ment the Christian argument is an intolerable torment 
to hundreds of cultivated minds around us. 

In the crowd of those who witnessed the miracles of 
Christ there.were some who mocked; there were some 


19 


918 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


who gnashed their teeth; there were many who mar- 
velled and applauded, and soon forgot what they had 
seen. But there were some into whose minds the doc- 
trine—the moral purport—the spiritual reality of his 
discourses had so entered that, beside being conscious 
of the fitness of which already I have spoken, they felt, 
with overwhelming force, a Congruity of another kind; 
I mean that of these miracles with the majestic bearing 
and style of Hrm who wrought them: for he did these 
‘“mighty works” with the spontaneous ease of one in 
whom this power, and much more was inherent. 

From what sources have I gathered my idea of the 
personal aspect and demeanour of Christ? You will 
say from the groundless traditions of Italian art—from 
our modern religious poetry—from the pulpit, and so 
forth. It may be so in part; but the main rudiments 
of this idea have come to me—I am sure—from a year- 
to-year reading of the Gospels— commentaries, transla- 
tions, and all modern accompaniments out of view. This 
vivid conception is the genuine product of the Kvan- 
gelic narratives, to which I have added nothing by 
imaginative effort. It is not that the writers have 
described to me this PERSON, or that they have given 
me a leading hint, here and there, to put me on the 
right tack. An image has concreted itself in my mind, 
whether I would or not. So far as I have laboured 
with it at all, it has been for the purpose of reducing 
it to its very simplest expression—removing from it 
the pictorial—the poetic—the dramatic—the medita- 
tive decorations, and bringing it to consist with the 
most rigid conception of the plain historic reality, as 
to the country—the age—the race—the costume. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 219 


This idea of the personal aspect and demeanour-— 
the individual manner and style of Christ, I find to be 
congruous with the narratives of his ‘“ mighty works,”’ 
ON ONE SUPPOSITION ONLY; on any other supposition 
the incongruity is irresistibly revolting. I possess no 
such power over the intellect, or the moral intuitions, or 
the ideal faculty, as would be requisite for bringing any 
such repellant conceptions into combination. You will 
say that this IDEAL is mine not yours; that you have 
no such conception; and therefore that you feel no 
such difficulty. But now, indulge me while I give you 
credit for a remainder of those sensibilities which per- 
haps you would disown. 

You will not tell me that a consciousness is unreal, 
merely because I fail in my endeavours to give it intel- 
ligible expressions, or indeed to put it into words at all. 
Do not the uncultured minds around us possess a 
genuine consciousness, as to moral principles, in be- 
half of which—either to explain, or to defend them, 
they would not have a word to say? Or take an 
instance such as this.—I have a consciousness of the 
vast difference between the Greek sculpture of the 
purest times, and the Roman style, of the imperial times, 
which consciousness is to me as much a matter of cer- 
tainty as is any other thing whatever that has become 
an inseparable part of my existence. The difference 
between the one style of chipping marble into the 
human form, and the other, is so clear in my view, that, 
to confound the two, or to mistake the one for the 
other, is impossible; and yet I should shrink from the 
attempt to set this same perception forth in sentences 
and paragraphs: I can do no such thing. Meantime 


220 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


you might as well tell me that honey and molasses have 
the same flavour, as try to convince me that this dis- 
criminative feeling is a mere illusion, or that it is a 
vulgar prejudice, belonging to my artistic orthodoxy. 

The sense of congruity which I have now in view, 
stands related to that moral regeneration which has 
placed our modern civilization so far in advance of the 
ancient civilization. ‘To the ancient civilization—that, 
to wit, of the Athenian age, there belonged a purity 
of Taste which we, of this time, must be content to 
admire, and very poorly to imitate. But then in our 
modern literature, and in our poetry especially—in our 
fine arts—sculpture, painting, and music, there is a 
deep soul-life of which the entire circle of ancient art, 
and literature barely offers the faintest indications. To 
the modern mind there has come to belong an awful 
capacity of feeling, and a liability to intensities, both 
of suffering and of enjoyment (the one as well as the 
other intellectual, not sensuous) of which the bright, 
gay, surface-loving mind of antiquity seems to have 
known little or nothing. Then along with this power 
of feeling, striking, as it does, into the roots of the 
soul, there are perceptions, and instinctive judgments, 
of which it must be said that they are altogether 
modern developments of humanity; they are true ele- 
ments of our nature ; but they have newly been brought 
from the sub-soil. 

It is to the slow working of Christianity upon human 
nature that I attribute nearly the whole of this deeper 
vitality of the modern mind: You think otherwise; but 
yet our difference as to the cause cannot affect our 
acknowledgment of the fact. If you should deny the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. el 


fact, I must think of you not merely as anti-Christian, 
but as downright pagan. 

Often and truly it has been said that the writers 
of the Gospels were men wholly incapable of imagining 
or of putting together a consistent fiction of any kind. 
But to say this is to say little in relation to the 
instance which I have now in view; for the accordance 
which comes upon my modern consciousness with so 
irresistible a force is of a sort to which the ancient 
world entire, cultured and uncultured—Greek, Roman, 
or Jewish, was not alive. Not only were there then 
no writers skilful enough, designedly, to bring together 
those elements of harmony; but even if there had 
been such writers, there were then no readers to 
whose senses any such harmony would have been cog- 
nizable. 

It is allowed that the miracles of the Gospels are, 
for the most part, narrated in the fewest words, and in 
the most artless manner. Then abreast of these nar- 
ratives, and intermingled with them, come the instances 
of Christ's behaviour, in various positions, and his 
utterances of those ethical principles which are pecu- 
liarly Christian. Now between these elements which 
are here found in juxta-position, there presents itself a 
congruity which the modern mind vividly perceives, but 
of which the ancient mind would scarcely have been 
conscious at all. The ancient mind formed a concep- 
tion of the Goétes, and of the Thaumaturge, in which 
conception the sombre, inscrutable element was the 
leading principle. The man so conceived of, and of 
whom types enough, in all their varieties, might be 
seen in Egypt, that seat of jugglery, was the murky or 

19* 


222. THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the epileptic supernaturalist. Antiquity had not con- 
ceived of a worker of miracles in whose course of life 
and behaviour the working of miracles showed itself 
as a secondary and incidental element, and in whose 
character Love was of the substance, while the super- 
natural faculty was the adjunct. 

Whencesoever the materials of the Gospels may 
liave come, and it is the office of criticism to inquire 
whence, this is certain, that they do convey an Idea of 
a PERSON, possessing, in an extraordinary degree, the 
charm of Unrry, or singleness of intention. ‘This idea 
may be variously expressed: it includes consistency 
of purpose, and the coherence of all principles of 
action ; it includes oneness of aim, from the commence- 
ment to the close of a course of life: it supposes uni- 
formity of temper, and a sameness of the impression 
that is produced by the Person upon other minds.. 
Then this idea excludes all those inconsequential depar- 
tures from the main purpose of a man’s life which, 
when we witness them, prompt the exclamation— 
‘How unaccountable, and how inconsistent a being is 
man, at the best!” 

If I wanted proof that this symmetry, moral and 
intellectual, does really belong to that idea of the 
Person which the Gospels embody and convey, I should 
find it in the fact that, amid all the dogmatic distrac- 
tions that have troubled Christendom, during eighteen 
centuries, there has prevailed, in all times, and among 
all Christianized nations, a wonderful uniformity as 
to the idea that has floated before all minds of the 
PERSONAL Curist. Wherever the four Gospels are 
popularly read, this same conception forms itself and 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. dA 


prevails. Infancy spontaneously acquires it: man- 
hood does not revise or reject it :—age holds it to the 
last. Itis not in consequence of the poverty of the 
elements it embraces, or of any vagueness in the mode 
of conveyance, that this idea is so perfectly sym- 
metrical. 

Now observe that this symmetry, or harmony of the 
elements, constituting the idea of Christ as a person, 
embraces the miraculous portions of the evangelic 
narrative, not less than the ordinary; and indeed, if 
there are any parts of this narrative which a reader of 
correct taste would single out as resplendent instances 
of moral fitness and unity, they are precisely those that 
narrate miracles with the most of detail. 

It is affirmed by those who reject every thing that 
presents itself as miracles in the Gospels, that these 
four compilations have become what they now are by 
the accumulation of heterogeneous fragments, vague 
traditions, exaggerated early beliefs, and myths. The 
Four Gospels, it is said, are constituted of a few mor- 
sels of genuine history, mingled with the illusions of 
the popular mind, that mind being then in a state like 
the “troubled ocean, casting up mire and dirt ;’’ and 
then it must be believed that, out of a random con- 
fluence, such as this, there has come a PERSONAL 
CoNCEPTION which is not merely morally beautiful, 
in the highest degree, but which, beyond all com- 
parison, is symmetrical, and is exempt from dis- 
cordant adjuncts. Are the chances as a million to 
one, or in what other proportion are they, that a 
conglomerate, mingling the true and the false (for you 
must except against add the miracles as false) should 


294 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


present an instance of congruity to which no equal 
can be found ? 

All the world, that is to say, readers of the Gospels, 
ten thousand to one, are conscious of this congruity, 
and discern this moral beauty. You say you see little 
or nothing of the sort; on the contrary, in the course 
of a strict criticism of these writings you have detected 
—how many is it ?—ninety-nine, or a hundred-and-one, 
discrepancies (these gospel contradictions constituting, 
just now, the stock entire of Disbelief); or you admit 
a something of harmony in the merely historic “ Jesus 
of Nazareth ;” but you spurn the miraculous portion 
of the narrative. Yet you cannot effect this separa- 
tion; for the harmony is not divisible. The super- 
natural cleaves to the individual; and the two 
elements constitute together the one person. 

Among these miracles there are no portents—such 
as are related by classic writers; there are no exhibi- 
tions of things monstrous ;—there are no contrarieties 
to the order of nature; there is nothing prodigious, 
there is nothing grotesque. Nor among them are there 
any of that kind that might be called tuzatric. There 
are no displays of supernatural power, made in the 
presence of thousands of the people, summoned to wit- 
ness them. Although claiming to be sent of God into 
the world, with a sovereign authority, Christ did not, 
as Elijah had done, convene the people, and then chal- 
lenge his enemies to dispute with him his mission by 
help of counter-attestations. 

Taken singly, and when regarded in relation to the 
circumstances out of which each of them arose, the 
evangelic miracles were as spontaneous, and, in this 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 225 


sense, they were as natural, as would be the acts of any 
one of ourselves who while walking up and down in this 
world of suffering, should suddenly become conscious 
of a power to give effect to the promptings and yearn- 
ings of pity. When I tread the floor of an hospital— 
what is it that I would do if I could? It is that 
which the Saviour of men did at the impulse of the 
very same sympathies, as often as the “sick, and the 
maimed, and the blind” were brought in crowds, and 
laid at his feet—‘‘ He healed them all.’’ 

What we have before us is not the Thaumaturge, 
going about to astound the multitude; but it is the 
Man, whose human affections are in alliance with 
Omnipotence. That hand uplifted, while the lips 
utter an axiom of virtue, symbolizes, at once perfect 
intelligence, absolute goodness, and irresistible power. 
If I can imagine myself to stand in that presence, at 
such a time, I should have felt that the fixedness of the 
course of nature is only an arbitrary and temporary 
constitution ; and that it must be less constant than are 
those energies of love, which are eternal. In the pre- 
sence of him whose volitions flow out into act, without 
an interval, the difference between the natural and 
the supernatural, if it has not already vanished, seems 
to tremble upon the balance; for nothing can be more 
natural than that omnipotent compassion should have 
its way. What is this material universe, in its vast-. 
ness, and its variety, but the product, every moment, 
of the perpetual wit of the Creator? If we believed 
ourselves to stand near to Him in whom the perfections 
of the Infinite Being dwelt bodily, a sovereign volition 


226 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


of one kind would not be accounted more difficult, or 
strange, than volitions of another kind. 

Considerations of this sort are thrown out as they 
suggest themselves, and they may be admitted or re- 
jected. What I insist upon may be condensed in these 
four allegations. 

i—A distinct INDIVIDUALITY, in the historic sense 
of the word, presents itself, in the perusal of 
the Four Gospels: all the world feels this, 
and has felt it in every age. 

ii.—By the consent of mankind, or the involuntary 
suffrage of Christianized nations, ancient and 
modern, a perfect individual idea, combining 
the intellectual and moral qualities of ONE 
who is wise, and good, and who is possessed 
of super-human power and authority, is em- 
bodied in the Four Gospels. 

iii—This harmony, or, as we call it, beauty of cha- 
racter, in which there is no distortion, and 
with which nothing is mingled that is incohe- 
rent, is spread over the entire surface of the 
evangelic narratives, embracing the superna- 
tural incidents of the life of Christ, not less 
than the natural. In these narratives no 
seams, or joints, can be discerned, showing 
where the spurious portion has been spliced 
on to the genuine; but— 

iv.—If we reject Christianity, as true in its own 
sense, that 1s to say, as attested by miracles, 
then we must solve the problem before us by 
means of one of two suppositions, or of some 
other, not essentially differing from the one or 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. yas 


the other, each of which, as it comes in turn 
to be considered, is inadmissible, and insuf- 
ferable.~ These suppositions are either—That 
no historic reality whatever has formed the sub- 
stratum of the Gospel history; in this case a 
perfect individuality has sprung out of a con- 
geries of illusions; or—The merely natural 
portions of the evangelic history being true, 
the supernatural portions have been imagined, 
contrived, and fitted to their places, with ‘so 
profound a skill as to defy all power of criti- 
cism to trace the joinings. 

Let Christianity solve its own problem in its own way, 
and then we stand clear of all endless perplexities— 
having before us, in perfect symmetry—the Curist oF 
Gop—the Saviour of the world. 

Let Christianity solve its own problem, in its own 
way, and then not only does this perfect congruity 
ensue connecting the PERSONAL CHARACTER of Christ 
with his miraculous acts; but a congruity connecting 
also these miracles with the Great Scheme of which 
they are the adjuncts. 

At intervals of frequent recurrence during the last 
two hundred years, Christian writers have carried on 
an argument, the conditions of which have compelled 
them to regard the miracles recorded in the Gospels 
under the one aspect of their present availableness, for 
the logical purpose of establishing the truth of Chris- 
tianity, as a revelation from Heaven. Thus to appeal 
to these supernatural attestations is, no doubt, a legiti- 
mate mode of defence against infidelity. And yet it is 
not while we are placing ourselves in this accidental 


2298 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


position, or when driven in upon it by sophistry, that 
we shall ourselves be conscious of the real meaning of 
those same events as related to the ScHEME oF RELI- 
GION which they serve to attest. This scheme, so far 
as it is unfolded in the Scriptures, or may be thence 
gathered, inferentially, grasps the destinies of the human 
family from the first, and so stretches itself out in pros- 
pect as to leave nothing connected with those destinies 
which it does not embrace and _ provide for. 

Christianity must be looked at in its own light. So 
looked at, it is seen to fill all time, and to lay its 
hand upon the human species, comprehensively, and 
absolutely. No child of man is born beyond its 
domain; none shall ever effect his escape into regions 
where its authority is not recognized. 

If the Gospel be thus thought of in the way in which 
itself claims to be considered, it will follow that the 
ministry of Christ, as narrated by the Evangelists, must 
be misunderstood so long as it is regarded as a course of 
events bounded by the initial and the closing year of 
his life among men. Whether we number ourselves with 
believers, or with unbelievers, we shall continue to mis- 
interpret the facts, or to be perplexed by them, while 
we keep the eye upon that narrow field of five-and- 
thirty years. 

You will tell me I am about to assume the truth of 
Christianity in order that I may show it to be true. I 
admit that it is so,in great measure; and it must be so, 
in the nature of things. So long as your mood of mind 
is this, that you will grant nothing which it is possible 
for you to deny, you will catch only a glimpse of things 
disadvantageously presented to the eye. But if you 


r 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 229 


allow me to exhibit the same objects in their true posi- 
tion, and in their natural proportions, you will yourself 
see them to be real. After this you will not ask me 
to follow you from point to point in so rigid a manner. 

If I undertook to teach you the modern astronomy, 
and you would at once grant that my interpretation of 
the visible heavens is the true one, I should be able to 
convince you that it is soin much less time, and by a far 
less painful process, than as if you make it a point of 
honour to dispute every inch of ground. 

In this present Tract I am not aware that I have 
assumed any thing, or any thing material—which a well- 
informed and ingenuous opponent can show to to be dis- 
putable. But it is not while following evidences, step 
by step, that the harmony of truth can be exhibited. In 
the next Tract I propose to choose my ground with 
more freedom—to assume the truth of that which I know 
to be true, and to employ myself in the more hopeful 
labour of setting forth those great consistencies among 
the principles and the facts of Christianity in regarding 
which its truth commands an assent which we yield 
cordially. 


In several places, in these pages, and as occasion 
arose, I have remanded the question of the Inspiration 
of the Scriptures, as not involved in the course of argu- 
ment which I am now pursuing. It is manifest that 
these two subjects—The HISTORIC REALITY of Christi- 
anity—claiming to be—Religion given by God to man, 
and the INsprRaATION of the canonical books, are separ- 

20 


230 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


able in a logical sense. And not only are they separa- 
ble, so as that they may be considered and discussed 
irrespectively the one of the other, but they are, in my 
opinion, best kept apart—especially so when we have to 
do with those who profess Disbelief; for recent disbe- 
lief rests itself almost entirely upon allegations that 
take their force from a mistaken apprehension of the 
doctrine of Inspiration. 

But if these two questions are separable, and if they 
should be kept separate, then it is manifest that the one 
with which I have concerned myself in these pages must 
have the precedence of the one which I remand. It 
must be a very illogical course to infer the historic truth 
of the Gospel from the alleged inspiration of the books 
which bring it to our knowledge. ‘To say—and to say 
it to an opponent—Christianity is true because the Gos- 
pels and Epistles are inspired books, is indeed to make 
a very unscrupulous use of the petitio principii. 

This logical sequence of the one subject as related to 
the other is quite obvious; and scarcely iéss so is the 
necessity at this present time, of establishing our posi- 
tion immovably as Christians, upon the ground of a 
belief that is purely historic. That this may be done 
I have a perfect confidence. When it has been done 
such inferences will be seen inevitably to follow as must 
leave nothing worth the contending for on the side of 
Disbelief. 

If Christianity be true—historically —its miracles 
included—and if indeed “Christ rose from the dead 
according to the Scriptures,’ then the writings which 
bring facts such as these to our knowledge will take a 
place of authority in our mind and conscience which, 


—— ee LO ee ee ee ee eee eee 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. St 


practically, and as to their influence in determining our 
faith and our conduct, must be very nearly the same 
whatever may be the theory or the opinion we adopt 
(among the many that have been advanced) concerning 
Inspiration. 

That these theories or opinions, on a subject so ardu- 
ous, and so important, are all nearly on a level as to 
their intrinsic merits, I am far from professing to think ; 
but I think that among those who have already yielded 
to the force of the evidence which proves Christianity 
to be true, the grounds of difference will be continually 
becoming more narrow, until a substantial agreement 
shall have taken place, and controversy on the subject 
die away. 

If now I may suppose myself to have to do with a 
reasonable and ingenuous opponent, I would ask such 
a one to forego the small and transient advantage 
which he may seize while he fights the doctrine of Inspi- 
ration. Let him deny himself any such momentary tri- 
umph, and manfully encounter the historic argument— 
the alleged inspiration of the books not considered. I 
might well ask swch an opponent to yield this point, 
simply because it is reasonable so to do; but further I 
will ask it because he who makes the request—which is 
in itself reasonable, does so in a mood which entitles 
him to be listened to. 

While earnestly wishing that the reader of these 
Tracts may forget the Writer and think only of the 
argument, I have persuaded myself that two inferences 
concerning him would, in a manner, whisper themselves 
in the ear of every candid reader. The first of these 
inferences is this—That the writer is no timid waverer 


pata THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


between belief and disbelief, looking about for expe- 
dients whereby to effect a compromise of the con- 
troversy now on foot. The second inference is this, 
That, how decisive soever may be his own convictions 
as a Christian, he harbours no ill feeling toward those 
to whom he opposes himself; and that, as well on the 
ground of temperament, as of principle, he is as exempt 
as most men from religious arrogance, and as little 
addicted to dogmatism. 

As to the question of Inspiration, second in impor- 
tance to no article of a religious man’s belief—I may 
perhaps find myself emboldened hereafter to offer to the 
intelligent and candid reader my thoughts upon that 
arduous subject. 


etal 


THE MIRACLES OF THE GOSPELS IN THEIR 
RELATION TO THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHEME. 


fe ( 


THE ALTERNATIVE — CHRISTIANITY OR ATHEISM. 


TuE time that has elapsed since I last placed before 
you my view of the Christian Evidences has allowed 
me, not merely to reconsider my proposed line of argu- 
ment in following up what I have written, but to 
think of it as related to the shifting position of the 
contrary opinion, or as we say, of DISBELIEF. 

It is matter of course, if one would not be beating 
the air, that one should aim to write what is season- 
able as well as what is abstractedly and always true. 
Yet as to that heterogeneous body of opinions to 
which the term Disbelief may be applied generically, 
two or three months is a long time within which it may 
be assumed to have undergone no remarkable change. 
A year may have seen revolutions and catastrophes 
take place in the history of a mass so inorganic; and 
as to two years, within that compass the ‘“ Leaders of 
the public mind’”’ may have exchanged positions, and 
_ several philosophies may in their turn have claimed 
submission as Positive and have come to be for- 
gotten. 

Besides the wish to write seasonably, I have a great 
wish to write temperately ; that is to say, with perfect 
calmness, and as mindful of the dictates of charity 
towards the adverse party. Now the passage of time 
does much in calming that eagerness of the polemical 
mood which impels us at any moment to violate can- 

(235) 


236 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


dour. While holding back from pen and ink for a 
year or two, one may have come so to generalise 
one’s views as to the meaning of a controversy, and 
as to its destined issue as must affect one’s feelings 
towards those who, on the opposite side, are urging it 
forward. | 

Although it is certain that I can never regard 
with cordial feelings those who are employing con- 
spicuous talents with unwearied zeal in the work of 
loosening the hold which salutary truths have upon 
the minds of men; nevertheless the first risings of 
instinctive resentment will have been checked when 
I have learned to think of them as the agents in a 
movement which is written in the book of fate, and 
the beneficial issue of which I see to be near at 
hand. 

The recent outburst of antagonism toward Chris- 
tianity may be contemplated by Christian men from 
opposite points of view; as for example; I might, 
with reason, as many Christian men do, look at this 
modern “ Infidelity” and “Impiety” with feelings of 
dismay, disgust, and indignation, as a wanton outrage 
upon society; and I might be wrought up to a pitch 
of zeal, impelling me to make proclamation, “ Who 
is on the Lord’s side?—who?” and then to vent my 
feelings in terms that cover curses. There might be 
reason in such a mood of mind as this; albeit it does 
not suit my individual temperament. When, in so 
many family circles, one finds young persons of intel- 
ligence and moral promise, who have thrown away a 
well-established religious belief, taking in exchange 
for it a contemptible sentimentalism—a mere dream, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 237 


that is recommended neither by logic nor manliness of 
purport ;—and when one sees that these victims have 
fallen by arts of licentious sophistry ; when, in min- 
gling with the artizan class in manufacturing districts, 
one hears men uttering blasphemies, they know not 
how impious, which they have picked up, as choice 
morsels, from out of the Sunday filth with which vile 
writers are supplying “the demand ;’—when, beyond 
this, one listens to too authentic information as to 
the spread of an unenglish disingenuousness among 
educated men who are persuading themselves to do 


on Sunday what they would scorn to do on any other 


day of the week;—when one meets with persons of 
cultured taste who give an indulgent ear to any sort 
of shining ribaldry that may help them to shake off 
the remains of a troublesome “ educational prejudice ;”’ 
when things such as these meet the eye and ear on 
all sides, those whose own belief is steadfast, and who 
know what must be the issue of a national lapse into 
atheism, are apt to fire up, and to make onslaught 
upon the authors of so much mischief, and to do so in 
the temper of one who rushes in to seize an incendiary 
by the shoulder. 

But these very same facts may be looked at from 
another and an opposite position. Yet in defining 
this other position some explanation is needed; for 
one may easily be misunderstood on this ground by 
nervous good folks. A word briefly here, and more 
onward in this Tract. 

It is implied in the very theorem of Christianity, if 
it be regarded as a body of truth sent down to work 
its way in a world out of order, and if it is to offer 


238 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


no solution of the dark problems of that world, that, 
from time to time, it should evolve contrary schemes 
of belief, or theoretic antagonisms, which draw their 
life and meaning, and their intensity, owt of itself. 
Heaven’s own truth will not fail at epochs to bring 
the insoluble problems of this present evil world to 
press with an intolerable weight upon the minds of 
men—and usually upon the choicest minds. Those 
deep principles of mundane regeneration which Chris- 
tianity has put in movement, and which it keeps in 
movement by new impulses from age to age, often 
take effect upon single minds, and upon communities, 
in a convulsive manner, and almost with a mortal 
violence. The Gospel scheme, if submitted to analysis, 
might be shown to carry in its depths the yeast of 
these periodic fermentations. Pardon me here a jum- 
ble of figures. If this system were not immortal it 
must long ago have been devoured by its own progeny. 
A false system either could not concoct such perilous 
energies; or if it could, would not have survived the - 
first outburst of them. | 

Christianity, until it has reached its next stage— 
that of acknowledged supremacy in relation to human 
affairs—cannot be imagined to live in it on any 
other possible condition than that of passing through 
frequently recurrent seasons of deadly conflict with 
adverse principles, which, though the germs of them 
are universally diffused, are never quickened except 
when they come into collision with eternal truth. To 
this subject, momentous as it is, and too little regarded, 
I must again, in this Tract, call your attention; for the 
present I advert to it only for the purpose of showing 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 239 


how these views affect the feeling I entertain toward 
those whe now stand forward as leaders of the move- 
ment which is to issue, as they think, in the over- 
throw of all Christian Belief. 

The DIsBLEIEF of these last days, so far as it is 
a scheme of doctrine, may be shown to be a birth 
of Christian doctrine. The Atheism, partly, and the 
Theism, entirely, of the present time is a heresy, full 
of Christian sap. By calling it Christzan, I mean that 
it has no meaning at all except that which it has 
wrung from elements of Christian belief, brought into 
collision one with another. Atheism, in these days, 
is not, as of old, a metaphysic abstraction, or a cold 
paradox; but it is a living creature, speaking with 
a loud voice, and showing a ruddy cheek, because it 
has drawn life-blood from that which can spare much, 
and yet live. If the Gospel, the destruction of which 
is so eagerly desired by some among us, were actually 
to breathe its last, not one of the schemes of doctrine 
which is now offered to us in its stead would thence- 
forward draw another breath. Universal nonbelief, 
which is the death of the human soul toward God 
and immortality, would instantly ensue. 

But there is no fear of the coming on of an hour 
of darkness, such as that would be. Impiety, while 
it has Christian blood in its veins, will henceforward, 
as now, start up to say its say, and to trouble our 
love of ease. It will do so because Christianity itself, 
which is now the only source of moral life in_ the 
world, is immortal, and will continue not only, as 
heretofore, to “satisfy her poor with bread,’ but to 
send out broken meat to her enemies, to the end that 


240 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


they may not starve. We shall continue, therefore, 
both to Believe, and to contend with Disbelief ; but 
we shail not fall into Nonbelief. 

This course of things is not merely in a logical sense 
inevitable, but it is highly useful; it is indispensable 
if not to the conservation of the Gospel, yet to the 
restoration of its forces. Do you imagine that I can 
so think of the good Christian folks of this present 
time, as to their judgment, as to their intelligence, 
or as to their conscientious diligence, as that I could 
be willing to leave Christianity, in their hands, undis- _ 
turbed and irresponsible? far from it. The work that 
is needed to be done, from time to time, and especially 
at this time, is of a sort which perfunctory good 
intentions will never attempt, and which conventional 
wisdom knows not how to set about. Let me here 
speak with reverence :—God will perform this work, 
and will call to it those who, as to their calling, will 
work at it in the dark. 

Just in proportion as there comes upon me a deeper — 
sense of the awful reality of the Christian scheme, and 
of its bearing upon the welfare of the human family, 
now and hereafter, do I feel distrustful of the easy, 
over-weening, and egotistic Christianism of Christian 
people. At the impulse of this uneasiness I am fain 
to cry out, looking across the road to the ranks of 
“Infidels and Atheists’—‘‘ Friends!’ come over and 
help us;—set the house on fire, and then we shall 
shake off our illusions, and do our duty.’ 

The earliest developed of the beneficial results of 
an outburst of Infidelity is this, that it compels intelli- 
gent Christian men to look anew to the ground on 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 241 


which they stand, to sift the “ Evidences,” and thus 
to regain logical possession of their religious persua- 
sion, ‘This is well; and so is the second consequence 
of such a fermentation—namely, the throwing off from 
the Christian body, as expressed in the formularies 
and the conventional style of churches and commu- 
nions, sundry superstitions and superannuations, which 
the “‘Hnemy” in the heat of action has snatched hold 
of and splintered, and which no one thenceforward will 
attempt to restore to their places: these relics are left 
to strew the field of battle. 

But there is a result which is far more important 
than either of these, consequent upon a time of out 
spoken impiety, and of which impiety Christianity, 
being, as it is, the only TRUTH now extant among men, 
is necessarily the object. This momentous interaction, 
partly logical, partly moral and spiritual, is of this kind: 

In the course of the controversy now in progress a 
marked approximation is every day made, on both sides, 
toward the point of intersection whereat the two be- 
liefs, the Christian and Antichristian, must come to a 
final issue. In the progress of debate we are drawing 
on toward that ground—a very limited space, which all 
men see to be the area whereupon one question only 
shall remain to be determined, in this way, or in that. 

In a manner which is perfectly conspicuous, and 
which no man of clear intellect can misunderstand, the 
religious controversy of this passing time is bearing 
us forward toward a single issue. The alternative, the 
only alternative now in front of the cultured branches 
of the human family, is this--Curistranity or ATHE- 
IsM. All lines of thought are visibly tending in to 

21 


242 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


this point: all men who are well informed, and whose 
habits of thought are unshackled, have long ago come 
to see this, or they are coming to see it, or (for we 
should save a corner for the less robust) are convul- 
sively struggling to hold themselves off from it. 

What I mean here by CHRISTIANITY, is the Gospel, 
in its plenitude and its amplitude, interpreting itself 
in its own way, and speaking among men in a tone of 
authority from which there is no appeal. 

What I mean by Aruntsm I do not well know how 
otherwise to define than by saying that it is the pro- 
position which stands last in logical order among those 
which the human reason can put into words, intelligibly, 
concerning the universe, or the compass of phenomena, 
external and internal, with which we have to do. 

One feels that this alternative, and nothing short of 
it, is near in front of us, because, on the one side, 
those many ill-judged and crazy schemes for effecting 
a compromise with infidelity, which of late have been 
propounded by intelligent Christian men, all carry upon 
them the indications of their origin in faltering belief, 
in mistaken discretion, and in confusedness of brain. 
We may be sure that no such slender devices as these 
can have power to check that mighty movement to 
which we are all of us committed, or can save us from 
its issue. On the other side—the side of Disbelief— 
the endeavours that are making by Theists to pack and 
float a raft a-head of Niagara would be purely matter 
of ridicule, if the consequences to these schemers were 
not what they are. 

We have reached our present position after leaving 
far in the rear the ignorant ribaldry of the Voltaire 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 243 


epoch. We have also now lately left behind us the 
erudite whim of Strauss. Strauss, by general acknow- 
ledgment, has failed in his endeavour to solve the his- 
toric problem of the origin of Christianity, on the 
assumption that it is false. The same thing stated in 
other words is this—that the historic and critical argu- 
ment on the affirmative side, is found to be irresistible. 
This is the consequence which, by his failure, this able 
writer has helped us to come to. 

If there be any means of holding of from the alter- 
native above stated, it must be sought for among those 
schemes of antichristian Theism which recommend 
themselves by a shining exterior of refined spiritualism, 
but which, rotund as they may seem on the sentimental 
side, will not bear to be turned over, so that one might 
look into them on the logical side. There are orders 
in the animal world that look gay and beautiful—prone; 
but are insufferable—supine. 

Such schemes cannot avail forthe purpose intended 
by their framers, because, as may easily be shown, 
recent advancements in abstract philosophy have made 
it impossible that they should any longer fence them- 
selves off, as toward their border doctrine—Pantheism, 
or the worship of the universe; and one need not take 
much pains to prove that the boundary between pan- 
theism and atheism is like the margin of twilight be- 
tween day and night in the tropics—an ambiguity that 
igs passed in ten minutes. 

Sometimes one wonders how it can be that educated 
men should endure the humiliation of putting forth, 
and of being looked to as the apostles of religious 
schemes, which can claim no fitter designation than 


244 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


this, that they are “Impiety scented and got up for 
the ladies.”” When with a rude breath one has blown 
away the perfumery, and with a ruthless hand has 
torn off the millinery, what remains to any of these 
recent theisms but the straw and shavings which the 
mass of men will never be persuaded to treat as any- 
thing better than rubbish? It will be of no avail to tell 
them that it has been the stuffing of a god. 

Truly it is not that “ Natural Theology” does not 
now, as ever, rest upon its own firm foundations; or 
that, in ascertaining these foundations, we are driven 
to the shift of reasoning in a circle, alternately assum- 
ing our premises in Natural Theology, for establishing 
Christianity, and anon using Christianity in making 
good our Natural Theology: no such expedients as 
these are called for. 

But the case, as touching us at the present moment, 
is this. During a lapse of years which need not be pre- 
cisely dated, as well the abstract as the concrete 
theistic argument has insensibly moved itself forward 
far in advance of the position which some of us remem- 
ber it to have occupied. That line of argument which 
was accepted as sufficient and conclusive in Paley’s 
time, and which embraced ten thousand accumulated 
evidences of power, intelligence, and benevolent inten- 
tion, drawn from the material universe, and from or- 
ganisms, vegetable and animal, around us, is indced 
as valid now as heretofore, and as unassailable. ~Yet 
it fails to meet the enlarged intellectual requirements of 
these times; for this argument does not even furnish us 
with an entire Theology, and it scarcely opens the 
path towards a Theodicy; much less does it lay the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 245 


foundation for a Worship, or give fixed support to 
an Hthical Doctrine. It wholly fails too to reveal a 
Future Life. 

On all sides, therefore, we now feel and know— 
and it is strange that our predecessors were so little 
conscious of the fact—that, for achieving these last- 
named purposes (and unless they are achieved the ar- 
gument is barely worth what it costs) we must go 
much deeper, and must look wider and further: our 
evidences, to be conclusive against the recent Atheism, — 
must embrace the entire circle of facts presented by 
the world of Mind, as well as by the world of Matter; 
and we must bring the stress of our argument to its 
bearing upon those intellectual and moral realities of 
which the reasoners of past times seem to have had but 
a glimmering consciousness. Our Natural Theology 
must, as to its hold upon our serious convictions, come 
home to the instincts of the real life, that is to say, 
the life of the soul. 

Now when we have done this—and we are driven to 
do it by the irresistible current of thought, as setting 
onward at this time—and when in the process of doing 
it we have recognised as trwe, and have reinstated as 
authentic, the whole of our emotional and mora) 
instincts, its impulses, sympathies, aspirations ;—-when 
we have assigned a place to our ineradicable hopes, and 
also to our equally ineradicable misgivings and alarms, 
and have thus constructed for ourselves a Natural 
Theology worth the labouring for;—when, in a word, 
we have provided ourselves with a Theology, a Theo- 
pathy, a Theodicy, a Morality ; when we find our feet 
_resting upon a basis of hope as men immortal, and also 
215 


246 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


that we are standing within range of terrors, as men 
guilty; when we find that there has reared itself 

around us an edifice within which men may: be invited 
to congregate, and to pay homage to the Creator, 

Ruler, and Father, we then feel that any longer to re-. 
pel Atheism and at the same time to discard Chris- 
tianity, is impossible. We have brought ourselves so 
near touching upon the awful alternative above men- 
tioned, that to hold off from it, demands an effort like 
that of one who is clinging by the hands to the pedi- 
ment of a lofty building. 

Up to a certain point, Natural Theology runs paral- 
lel with Christianity. Removing the forms of the argu- 
ment, and thinking of its substance; or substituting 
concrete terms for abstract terms, it is a nice matter to 
distinguish the one body of belief from the other. 
When we have trod the Theistic ground as far as it may 
be trod, Christianity is ready to collapse upon us, and 
to challenge us to surrender. And this challenge gets 
a deeper meaning at each step of our progress. 

The Deists of the time gone by, seem to have been 
little conscious of difficulties which we of this time are 
groaning under. It is amazing to see in how dry, cold, 
and mechanic a style the writers of the past era, Chris- 
tian as well as antichristian, deal with those grave and 
painful subjects which touch the modern mind to the 
quick, and which well-nigh drive sensitive spirits to de- 
spair. A trim, academic, syllogistic, and rotund para- 
graph, indicating no genuine sympathy “vith human 
suffering, no anguish of soul, no mortal conflict, not 
even a man-like feeling toward our fellow men, did well 
enough for the finish-off of an argument attempted for 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. Oy 


“justifying the ways of God toward man.” The “tenth 
head of discourse’’ in a sermon would afford ample 
space wherein to propound and to dissipate all reason- 
able doubts on questions of that order. 

But the times have changed. A new and better 


feeling has come, not upon the few only, but upon very 


many, if not the mass of minds. It is a better feeling 
(whatever it may lead to) in so far as feeling is better 
than apathy ; and as there might be a question whether 
it would not be better for a man to hang himself in de- 
spair, than that he should live on and die in sottish in- 
difference to facts which would make him wish himself 
out of the world, if he were but conscious of them. 

At this moment we may be quite sure that no scheme 
of religious belief will be able to hold its footing abroad 
in the world, or beyond the walls of closets and saloons, 
which does not, in some intelligible and coherent man- 
ner, make provision for securing our peace of mind in 
regard to the present lot, and to the prospects of the 
human family. 

It is on this arduous ground that the fate of the 
recent Theisms, one and all of them, is sealed. They 
will have their day, and then become as the chaff of 
the threshing-floor. Atheism offers its services by 
showing us how we may cease to feel, or to trouble our- 
selves concerning anything that does not touch our 
individual animal welfare at the passing moment. But 
it is few that can take to themselves this sort of com- 
fort, brutish as it is. | 

Our Theistic friends cannot do it; and, while turning 
their backs upon the Gospel, they are struggling at 
desperate odds to keep at bay the last enemy in the 


248 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


direction toward which they are looking. They are 
asking —‘ Why may not we, as did our illustrious pre- 
decessors, stand our ground, and enjoy our philosophic 
religion, while we spurn your obsolete Christianity ?”’ 
‘‘ You cannot do it, because we and you, and all of us, 
have moved forward on to new ground. You see that 
the Theologians of this time do not utter, nor can they 
bring their lips to frame those heartless syllogisms con- 
cerning the lot. of man in this world and the next, which 
passed glibly over the tongues of their predecessors. 
This fact might give you a very significant notice that 
the time is gone forever, when the icy philosophy of a 
profligate age could be re-edited. - The same impossi- 
bility which presses upon Christian Theologians at 
this time, must take effect in another manner upon 
yourselves, and forbid your wrapping yourselves in 
the fool’s coat that fitted the broad shoulders of your 
grandsires.” 

The Theists of this time might perhaps hold their 
ground if their near neighbours the Atheists, who laugh 
at them, would let them alone; but they will not let 
them alone. hey have found a sort of comfort and a 
present ease in their abyss, which the Theist will never 
enjoy while he struggles to keep his head above water, 
and while he continues to look up to the sky. 

Abstract questions are necessarily the same in sub- 
stance in every age; and any attempted solution of the 
difficulties that attach to such questions can vary but 
little, except as to the order of the thoughts, and the 
tone and the style of the language employed by an in- 
dividual writer. Inasmuch therefore as those standing 
perplexities with which the best minds, in all times, have 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 249 


struggled, to little or no purpose, must continue to press 
apon every scheme of Philosophic Theism, those who, 
at this moment, are propounding such schemes ought 
not to think that they shall be more successful than 
their predecessors. But unless they are so, unless, in 
a very signal manner, they are more successful, then 
it is certain that the human mind is moving toward a 
ground where these ancient difficulties will gain a ten- 
fold force. This should be well understood: but the 
whole subject will comegin its proper place, if con- 
sidered further on in the course of this argument. I 
have adverted to it here, simply for the purpose of 
showing with what feeling I regard those who, as anti- 
christian men, I must speak of as adversaries, but who 
are not yet Atheists. 

In regard to the time that is near at hand, and as a 
preparation for that one last convulsion which the human 
mind must pass through, in making its choice between 
Christianity and Atheism, it is not merely desirable, 
but it is indispensable to the good issue of the conflict, 
that. Antichristian Theism should first have exhausted 
all its resources, should have shot its best arrow, should 
have refined itself to the utmost, should have culmi- 
nated in its own heavens—and, especially, that it 
should have given utterance, in opposition to Christi- 
anity, to the most extreme impieties which may any 
way be made to consist with its holding a position at 
all against Atheism. 

It may be thought that this preliminary work has 
already been accomplished. I do not think so. I 
can imagine something better to come than what has 
hitherto been put forth by our hostile friends—the 


‘250 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


antichristian antiatheists. As yet, what we have had 
before us has borne the manifest indication of being 
the product either of minds unstable, impulsive, and 
perturbed, and ill content with their own holdings 
(which they cannot hold to) or of such as are flippant, 
self-seeking, ambitious, and coldly vain—minds that to 
win a clap, would not scruple to sink a continent. I 
can hardly imagine that Antichristian Theism has in- 
deed completed its destined werk while it is repre- 
sented by writers who show no such seriousness or 
honesty of purpose as would lead them fairly to meet 
the point of the problem as to the origin of Christi- 
anity, and to scorn transparent sophisms which can 
serve a turn only among the uninformed and unthink- 
ing—the consumers of “ railway literature.”’ 

Especially we want to see what can be done in mak- 
ing a good scheme of antichristian antiatheism, by 
men who have that modesty and self-respect which 
Inspires respect for an opponent. On this ground the 
entire class of modern infidel writers is miserably at 
fault. Christianity, keeping its hold, as it does, of 
the profound convictions of men who are as highly 
cultured as any men, and who are as robust in mind 
as any, and as fearlessly honest as any, it is an ill 
symptom when a set of writers constantly affects an 
innocent ignorance of any such fact, and are always 
showing off their condescension toward the obtuse 
superstitions that are prevalent in these ‘middle 
ages.” 

Tam apt to think that this affectation must nearly 
have worn itself out by this time, and that men who 
will be ashamed of it are yet to come forward on the 


f 


¥ 
THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 251 


same side—if indeed anything further remains to be 
advanced on that side. 

Meantime I harbour no animosity toward the writers, 
such as they are, with whom a Christian writer has to 
do. I am heartily glad, for myself, that I am not 
doing their work—although, alas! it must be done by 
somebody. ‘Toward some who manifestly have known, 
as | have known, the pains of saddened meditation, 
my feelings are those of profound sympathy. As to 
the flippant and the ambitious, it is easy to forget 
them. As to one or two who, in a fit of moral 
hallucination, have uttered revolting blasphemies, I 
leave them in the hands of Him whom they revile, 
and who once carried charitable hope to its utmost 
boundary when He said, ‘‘ They know not what they 
do.” 


THE THREE PURPOSES OF CHRIST'S MISSION, AS ATTESTED 
BY MIRACLES. 


Ir it be serious] y-minded and sincere men that are to 
be addressed, then it may be demanded of them that 
the Gospel should be listened to on the supposition 
that it is true: and then, let it be proved to be false, 
if that can be done. 

And yet though I append this last condition, I must 
not be so misunderstood as if I could imagine this to 
be possible. Any such assumption I hold to be mon- 
strous; and even to this hypothetic statement we can 
attach no meaning so long as we respect the laws of 
evidence, and the principles of human nature. But the 
Christian argument must be left to follow in that 
course which is proper to the exposition, to the due 
conveyance, and to the demonstration of any other, and 
of every other system of proof in which premises are 
assumed, legitimate conclusions arrived at, difficulties 
cleared up, and counter-suppositions shown to be un- 
tenable or futile. 

Whoever charges himself with such a task as that 
of conveying to the intelligence and reason of others a 
system or body of truth—of whatever kind—must be 
understood to have come upon his ground in some such 
manner as this: that is to say—he professes to under- 
stand the subject of which he is to treat; and those to 
whom he speaks must believe that he does understand 


it, and that he is familiar with all parts of it, including 
(252) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 253° 


its most difficult problems. They must listen to him 
on the belief that what he affirms to be true, he knows 
to be demonstrable; and they must believe too that he 
is prepared, at the last, to meet and remove all reason- 
able objections. 

There is nothing in the circle of philosophy, of eriti- 
cism, of history, or of physical science, that can fairly 
be set forth and established, unless, formally or vir- 
tually, as much as this is postulated on the one side, 
and is cheerfully allowed on the other. 

From this point onward, therefore, dropping a peti- 
tionary tone, and abstaining from those interlinear 
circumlocutions which spring from the consciousness 
of having to encounter a perpetual gainsaying and 
hostile contradiction, I am to speak in the undisturbed 
confidence that my position is good; and that it is 
impregnable. 


From the acts and discourses of Christ, and not 
least, from the occult meaning of several of his para- 
bles, we gather, with more or less distinctness, that 
his mission, as toward the human family, had, in his 
own view of it, three purposes, each of which is, to a 
great extent, irrespective of the other two, and which, 
although they are not in fact disjoined, are yet 
susceptible of interpretation, when taken apart. The 
supernatural element of the Christian system—or that 
body of miracles which is recorded by the four Evan- 
gelists—has a meaning which is peculiar in relation 
to each of these three purposes, considered indepen- 
dently of the others; and in relation to each, and to 


the entire scheme of which his ministry on earth was 
22 


254 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the visible act, the miracles alleged to have been 
wrought by him, in the course of it, are neither the 
beginning, nor the end, nor the substance of that 
scheme; and although they are inseparable from it, 
they are adjunctive, and, in a sense, are incidental 
to 1b. 

The supernatural element of this system, although 
adjunctive, holds its position within it, unchanged by 
the lapse of ages. If we have come to think of the 
miracles of the evangelic history—supposing the entire 
truth of the record—as events which long ago have 
come to their end, as to their intention, and which are 
now receding from our view, and are fading away in 
the haze of a remote antiquity ;—if we thus think, we 
misapprehend (so I believe) the purport of the Gospel, 
and lose sight of its perennial vitality. This I shall en- 
deavour to show. 

The three purposes embraced in the mission of 
Christ, as sent of God to bring about the well-being of 
the human family, or to open a door of hope to all its 
tribes, are these three :— 

First we gather from Christ’s incidental expressions, 
and from the purport of some of his parables, this 
assumption—That he knew himself to have appeared 
in the world to bring about, by means of principles 
which he originated, or which he authenticated, a 
SECULAR REFORMATION; that is to say, a purification, 
a rectification, and an ennobling of man’s life, indivi- 
dually and socially, as related to this present course of 
things—even that life individual of which death is the 
termination, and that life social which matures itself in 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 955 


races—expires with them, and renews itself in other 
and remote regions. 

CuristT, the Reformer and Philanthropist, was to 
bring about this purpose of his mission just so far as it 
could, in its nature, be brought about, by means that 
are purely suasive; or, as we say, by moral influences, 
apart from the auxiliary concomitance of visible and 
political imstitutions, and of secular power, or the 
setting up of an empire. 

As to the seconp of these three purposes of Christ’s 
mission and ministry, a far more explicit reference is 
made to it by himself than to either the first or to the 
third. In truth it so stands out in his discourses, and 
it so presents itself in his apologues, as might lead us 
to suppose that it was the ruling purpose of his life, and 
the reason of his sufferings and death, and that which, 
when he had made it sure by his resurrection, became 
the complement of joy in the forethought of which he 
had endured the cross and despised itsignominy. This, 
the second and prominent purpose of Christ’s mission, 
was the rescue of a gathering—call it, if you will, an 
election—from out of the million millions of the human 
family, and the conferring upon these—whom he calls 
‘his own’’—the life divine, the life immortal—even a 
new and imperishable existence, of which his own 
human immortality was to be at once the type and the 
pledge. 

On this ground I am not writing as a theologian, 
or as a disputant on one side of an antiquated contro- 
versy. I know nothing about systems of divinity, 
nothing about confessions of faith, nothing about articles 
of religion. 


256 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


What I have to do with, and the only things that 
come within my field of vision, are these :—on the one 
hand, Christ’s own professions—distinct and unambig- 
uous as they are; and on the other hand, that matter 
of fact which, conspicuously, has attached to, and has 
characterized, the course of events in all ages and 
countries when and where the Gospel has, in any mea- 
sure, developed its energies. 

The accomplishment of this second purpose, as of the 
first, was to involve such means only as are purely 
suasive—moral and spiritual, that is to say as distin- 
guished from such as are visible, political, and mun- 
dane. But then, more than this, it implies the presence 
of a spiritual energy, going beyond the suasive force 
of moral principles, or of audible teaching, and which 
takes effect in each instance in a manner that is inscru- 
table, that is infallible, and that is analogous to those 
acts of the Creative will which at the first filled the 
universe with life, and which is now and always doing 
the same. 

As to the THIRD of those purposes which we assume 
to have been included in the mission of Christ, inas- 
much as it is more occult than the first, and far more 
so than the second, and as it touches the circle of 
human duties and sentiments only in an indirect man- 
ner, 80 18 It very parsimoniously alluded to in his dis- 
courses, and if anywhere affirmed didactically, the con 
veyance is made in symbolic terms. 

Brevity and indistinctness, in this instance, are what 
we should look for, as proper in one who in truth is 
what he professes himself to be. The enthusiast or pre- 
tender would either have made no swch challenge, or 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 257 


if he had made it, would have blazoned it in hyper- 
bolic style. 

Gathering up with care from Christ’s incidental ut- 
terances, and from his apologues, the less obvious im- 
port of certain passages, we infer that he professes 
himself to have entered upon the stage of the world, 
on the part of the Almighty—its rightful Lord, to 
deliver the human family from under the hand of a 
lawless Usurper—to restore truth and order—to over- 
throw the tyranny, and to bind and expel the Tyrant ; 
and having done so—to “lead captivity captive.” 

The accomplishment of this THIRD purpose of Christ’s 
advent involves or supposes on his part, an absolute 
lordship over all human spirits, (willing and unwilling, ) 
a control of all destinies—present and future; to wit— 
the weal and the woe of the Living and of the Dead— 
for Christ is Sovereign and Judge: he is King of 
Hades, and Master also of every spiritual race, as well 
the loyal as the rebellious. 

The accomplishment of this ulterior purpose of 
Christ’s mission, and the achievement of this conquest, 
is to be brought about—so we infer—in such a manner, 
and by such means only, as shall at once demonstrate, 
and shall signalize, in the view of all, the INTRINSIC 
FORCE of Goodness, Truth, Rectitude, when, on even 
ground, these immortal energies are matched against 
wickedness, with its falsities, its subterfuges, its ever- 
blundering intelligence—its own sophisms—and its 
own malignant devices. This superiority of Good in 
its conflict with Evil is to be exhibited under con- 
ditions as favourable as may be to the party that is in 
the end to be discomfited. 

92% 


aod 


258 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


In thus sketching the outline of the argument which 
I intend to pursue throughout this Tract, I profess it. 
to be my intention to show that the series of miracles 
recorded by the Evangelists, consummated as they 
were by the miracle of Christ’s resurrection, occupy 
a place of perpetual efficacy in relation, separately, to 
each of the three abovenamed purposes of his mission, 
as Saviour of the world, in a secular sense, as Re- 
deemer of his people, and as Conqueror in the world 
of spirits. 

This series of supernatural events is, as I think, 
altogether misunderstood as to its purport, when it is 
imagined to have been an interposition requisite for 
launching a New Religion in the world—and for giving 
it an initial impulse; but which, now that the Gospel 
has got its footing among the nations, has outlived its 
purpose, and may, not only safely but conveniently, 
and with advantage, be suffered to fall out of notice 
and to be forgotten. 

Any such supposition as this—entertained as it 
seems to be by some who profess themselves Chris- 
tians—is, in my opinion, an error which is the fruit of 
modes of thinking that are shallow and nugatory. 


THE FIRST INTENTION OF CHRIST'S MISSION, AS AT- 
TESTED BY MIRACLES. 


We have said that Curist has entered upon the 
platform of the human system—even of this secular 
course of things—embracing the well-being of men 
singly, and the wellfare and progress of communities, 
with the purpose of effecting thereupon a gradual, but 
‘extensive and deep-working regeneration. As Bene- 
factor of those whose ordinary term of existence is 
three score years and ten, and as the Reformer of 
communities and nations which, although they have 
longevity, have no after life, He gains a hearing for 
principles the vitality of which is such that they ger- 
minate in the most rugged soils, and spring up and 
bear fruit and scatter their seeds under the most in- 
clement skies. 

These principles, contrary as they are to the selfish 
impulses and to the ingrain desires of human nature, 
are sought after for the very purpose of expelling, and 
of utterly putting them out of the way of interference 
with the better-loved interests of the day and hour. 
Yet they live; and from time to time they come forth 
with a fresh energy, even as at the first: nay, with 
more energy than at the first; because in each succes- 


sive impact upon the human system, they fall upon a 
(259) 


260 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


mass which themselves have brought into a condition 
favourable to the impression that is next to be made 
upon it. 

It would seem to be a matter of course, at this point, 
to specify those ethical principles, or as we might call 
them, those edicts of the Christian system, which are 
its characteristics, and which, so far as they take effect 
upon the course of affairs in this present life, do so, 
by universal acknowledgment, in the right direction; 
that is to say, in the giving force to every dictate of 
justice, humanity, self-denial, temperance, and purity. 
But it is superfluous to introduce any such specifica- 
tions, for we are saved this labour by those who, wish- 
ing to disparage Christianity, are wont to say that, as 
to his ethical principles, Jesus of Nazareth has ad- 
vanced nothing but what had been already said, and 
in a better manner, by the great writers of antiquity ; 
or even by Jewish teachers and Chinese philosophers. 
If this be so, then, on all hands, it is agreed that the 
morality of the Gospel is coincident with principles 
held and professed by the leading minds of the most 
cultured races. This is enough ; or if anything more 
were affirmed it would be in such terms as these, it 
would be said—‘‘ We do not need Christianity as a 
system of morals; for we all know and feel whatever 
is good—whatever is simply of an ethical quality, in 
the Gospels and the Epistles.” This then is enough ; 
and it hence appears that Christ, as the Reformer of 
the human system in its secular aspect, takes up and 
authenticates those well-understood principles which 
as soon as they are heard approve themselves to the 
consciences of men, and which the sages of all times 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 261 


have recognized and taught. This is as it should be, 
and on this ground, it appears, there is no contro- 
versy. 

That the teaching of an ethical Reformer should be 
consentaneous with the better feelings and convictions 
of men, as embodied in the sayings and teachings of 
minds of the highest order, is what we should look for 
as the FIRST requirement in one who comes forward to 
regenerate a world that has fallen into disorder. 

The SECOND requirement in the qualifications of 
such a Reformer is this—that, in giving expression 
to these dictates of universal morality, he shall use 
categorical forms, and not such as are conditional or 
logical. His style is this—“I say unto you’—and 
“this is my commandment.” But then the necessary 
adjunct of an authoritative tone, such as this, is—the 
affording evidence that it has been rightfully assumed. 

It has been usual, on the part of Christian advo- 
cates, to say, that Christ sets a bold foot upon the 
ground of the world, as if proprietor of the soil, and 
that he issues laws, as Master, not maxims as a sage. 
In no case does he ask leave to be listened to, or 
aim to conciliate attention. Love is in his demeanour 
and in every act of his life; but stern law is on his 
lips, and it is at our peril that we turn away the ear 
from him who speaks as none but the ‘one Lawgiver”’ 
may speak. 

Christ, as founder of a system of mundane Ethics, 
revises and overrules all bygone moralities, issuing 
anew whatever is of unchangeable obligation, and con- 
signing to non-observance or oblivion whatever had 
a temporary force, or a local reason. With a touch— 


262 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


with a word—a word full of far-reaching inferences, 
he rules the ages to come; and he so sends morality 
forward—he so launches it into the boundless futurity 
of the human system on earth, as that it shall need 
no redressing, no complementing, no retrenchment, 
even in the most distant era. 

This is done, not by systematic codification, but by 
the characteristic practice of instancing at the critical 
points, and wherever an ambiguity is to be excluded. 
Beauty of contour, in the human’ form, is secured by 
the ligaments at the joints, and by adhesions of the 
integuments to the bony structure at places. It is so 
that, in Christ’s apothegms, in his apologues, and in 
his pointed replies to sophistical questions, he imparts 
a divine symmetry and majesty to his body of laws.— 
Christ’s law wears the grace of heaven, though it be 
firmly knit together as law must be if it is to hold a 
place in a world such as this, | 

Is then Christ’s morality a good morality as related 
to the well-being of men in this present life? You find 
fault with it—raising objections on this or that ground. 
But your individual judgment can have little signi- 
ficance nor carry much weight in this instance; for an 
appeal may be made from your frigid and captious 
criticism to the judgment of mankind. It is true that 
we all of us kick at Christ’s law, and resent it, in our 
worse moods of mind; but we all give in to it and 
approve it, in our better moods. We defend ourselves 
against its application to ourselves, and we look about 
for pleas and grounds of exception whenever it stands 
upon the pathway of our selfish or sensual desires; 
but we are prompt to wish that we could arm this 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 265 


same law with thunder when another’s selfishness or 
his passions threaten our peace or property. 

‘In the course of those convulsions and upheavings 
which the civilized western nations have passed through, 
in the lapse of centuries, Christ’s morality has still 
floated uppermost, and has held its position in the 
opinion of nations, as being better than any other 
morality with which it might be compared. In the 
social condition of communities those things which rend 
the heart of the philanthropist, and which perplex the 
statesman, are those in which Christ’s law has been set 
at naught, and in which if it were applied to them, 
sufferings would be mitigated—oppressions would wear 
themselves out, or be renounced immediately; and so 
the problem which baffles legislation would resolve 
itself as if by spontaneous sublimation. Christ’s law, 
taking effect as the principle of social well-being, 
underlays legislation by the substitution of deeper 
motives for motives that are shallow; and it overlays 
legislation by establishing conventional proprieties of 
behaviour, and by diffusing a refinement and _a sensi- 
tiveness, as to conduct, which have the effect of ban- 
ishing enactments and penalties from the thoughts 
of men, in the ordinary routine of domestic and public 
life. Let Christ’s law come into its position, first as 
a fixed principle, and then as a suffused influence, and 
thenceforward legislation would retire within its limits 
as a needful authority in the defining of those recipro- 
cative interests and functions which are indifferent, as 
to morality. 

We are so used to think of Christianity as a Re- 
LIGION, related to the invisible and future life—which 


264 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


doubtless is its essentéal character, that it demands an 
effort of abstraction to think of it merely as a mun- 
dane, or secular religion, sustaining itself indeed upon 
beliefs concerning the invisible and the future, yet 
achieving an end which does not in fact stretch out 
beyond the present life. 

If Christianity be not from heaven in the sense in 
which it claims to have come thence, then its author 
individually, is entitled to the immeasurable glory of 
having devised and put upon a course of continuous 
vitality a mundane religion which, for power, and 
for the intimate hold it takes upon the deepest prin- 
ciples of human nature, is, when set beside the ancient 
theisms, what the summer’s sun is as compared with 
an arctic aurora. 

Let us then take it so at least as far as a page 
onward in this Tract, that Christianity is the product 
of a human mind—a benevolent mind—intending to 
benefit mankind, and projecting the means of driving 
off the vicious polytheism of the nations, and alming 
to substitute an efficient belief for the inefficient ab- 
stractions of Hastern and Grecian sages. 

This intention supposed, then the author of Chris- 
tianity did these things following :—First, he brought 
the Infinite and Supreme Being—the Oreator and 
Ruler of the world, clearly and prominently out from 
the haze and the ambiguities of abstract or meta- 
physical speculation. Theism had laboured to do this 
—it had yearned to do it—it had laboured and had 
yearned on this ground to give some contentment to 
the sorrowful longings of the human breast, and to 
find and furnish a balm for its woes; and also to screen 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 265 


from horrors the terrified imagination of guilty man. 
Very slender success had attended any of these earnest 
endeavours. The crowd of men was in fact sent back 
from the walks of philosophy, and they were told to 
procure for themselves what help they might, at the 
hands of priests, and in frequenting altars and in be- 
sieging shrines. 

Christ, and we now think of him as the author of 
2 secular religion, effected his purpose by bringing 
men into immediate contact with a well-defined con- 
ception of a Personal Being, infinite, incomprehensible, 
and yet near to each human spirit—to each spirit a 
Father, “seeing in secret,” and accessible by prayer. 
It was this vivid revelation—call it now a merely 
human conception, which by its splendour put out the 
flickering candle of philosophy, and which by its force 
overthrew altars, and sent gods and goddesses to 
seek a home in the waste places of the earth; or, if 
not so, they were left to shrink back into their own 
marbles; or they vanished from the real world, and 
were to be found only in the books that are now the 
portion of schoolboys. 

If Christianity be a religion for this present life, 
then it takes possession of the human spirit precisely 
at those points of contact whereat a religion first 
makes its entrance, and which are the very last hold- 
ing-places , of religious feeling with men who are 
throwing off their belief. That is to say—the con- 
sciousness of guilt—the consciousness of weakness, 
and the experience of suffering, impelling us, whether 
we will or not, to believe in the speczalety of the Pro- 
vidential government of the world, and to trust in, 


23 


266 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


and to use the instrument of prayer, as a real and 
present means of obtaining deliverance—relief—solace. 
It is quite true that there is a class of sophistically 
constituted, or of sophisticated and debauched minds, 
that do succeed in reasoning themselves out of these 
instinctive beliefs :—there are men who, with a suicidal 
wantonness, having applied logical scissors to the 
nerves of the moral life, do, and may, with truth, de- 
clare that they are conscious of no impulse leading 
them to look to the supreme power or mercy. 

So it may be with the exceptive few; but so it is 
not, nor ever has been, with human nature, taken at 
large. Man and woman, in this their season of hope 
and fear, of changeful weal and woe ;—man, while he 
carries in his bosom a conscience, and while he is 
liable to a thousand ills, must have a religion. 

In giving men a religion, Christ, the Saviour of the 
world, does not recognize, as if they deserved refuta- 
tion, any of those sophisms that contradict our belief 
in Providence, and that would silence prayer, as if it 
could be of no avail: on the contrary, He gives promi- 
nence, in the most distinct and emphatic manner, to 
these three principles, which in truth might be regarded 
as the characteristics of his system, namely—That 
there is forgiveness of sins with God—That the welfare 
of the individual man is watched over and provided for 
by God our heavenly Father, even in relation to the 
smallest of its elements; and That “the Father of 
spirits” hears prayer, and yields himself to it, and that 
He is accessible to importunity. These are the con- 
stituents of a Belief such as men have need of in this 
present life. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 26T 


When, us now, we are thinking of Christianity as 
an earth-born and a secular religion, then, without in- 
stituting inquiry as to the truth of its doctrine con- 
cerning a future life, (which inquiry can be pertinent 
only when we regard it as heaven-descended,) we are 
bound to take account of those main elements of the 
scheme—the promise and the threat of a world to 
come—even a retributive immortality. 

The way in which this promise and this threat are 
propounded, and then the mode of balancing both with 
the instinctive sense of justice, in the human mind, de- 
mand to be noticed; for these adjustments have a deep 
meaning, and have been too little regarded. 

The future retributive life—the alternative of abso- 
lute weal or woe, and each of these carrying with it 
the momentum of a boundless duration—how have these 
fearful conceptions been employed by the Author of 
the Christian system ?—an awful Eternity, brought to 
bear upon a mundane religious institute! and may we 
not use this word, awful, as a fit adjunct not merely 
of the threat, but even of the promise? In truth can 
we look onwards to an endless existence as our destiny, 
under any condition, and not tremble ?—or can this 
instinctive fear be easily exempted from feelings of 
dismay ? 

The word Eternity must here be accepted in its po- 
pular sense; for assuredly any terms or phrases. that 
are used in conveying to mankind at large a secular 
religion, must be understood to bear none other than a 
popular or ordinary interpretation. Whatever those 
exceptions may be to which the more mature criti- 
cism of a future time may give support, or whatever 


268 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF, 


the qualifications which a future biblical induction may 
introduce, there will ever stand before Christianized 
nations, in the teaching of Christ, an absolute alterna- 
tive, as awaiting those of the human family that have 
come within its influence; that is to Say, a state of 
permanent well-being, or a condition of irretrievable 
suffermg and damage in the future life: and this as 
the consequence of our behaviour in this life, or of our 
moral and spiritual condition when we leave it. 

Those who have had much practical concernment 
with human nature, such as it is, and who understand 
the instability of the moral principle in the minds of 
men and women, such as they are, will be ready to 
grant that no presentment of the future life which 
should be ambiguous, or which should be otherwise than 
absolute, on this side, or on that, would be likely to 
take any effect at all upon the mass of minds. The 
supposition of a future state which should have no 
boundary between a condition absolutely good, and the 
contrary, would be snatched at as eligible on all those 
perilous occasions when the imperious commands of the 
sensuous and selfish life are balancing against the vague 
and remote good of the life future. To give force to 
motives acting under this disadvantage, they must carry 
with them this idea of fixedness, as belonging to the 
future retributive state. 

But now it is certain that among those moral intui- 
tions which are the hopeful distinction of human na- 
ture, there is a profound sense of fitness, order, and 
justice, which demands a doctrine of quite another 
sort, as requisite for securing’ the equilibrium of the 
mind; and especially of minds the most sensitive to- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 269 


ward whatever is good and true. Accordingly provi- 
sion is made in the Christian scheme for meeting and 
for satisfying this moral necessity. 

This is done distinctly and boldly in the teaching 
of Christ, when, in various modes, he gives expression 
to the doctrine of an exactly adjusted, and an evenly 
meted out retribution—premium and penalty—such as 
shall fall short of nothing in a balance-keeping recom- 
pense of good deeds, on the one hand, and a punish- 
ment, or an exacting of pains, on the other; even such 
a retribution as shall approve itself to all well-consti- 
tuted minds ;—only that on this side, considerations 
of ignorance or disadvantage shall be admitted to miti- 
gate, or to overrule the reckoning. 

This doctrine stands before us, on the one hand, 
quite as sharply defined as does the other doctrine on 
the other hand; and it is this last-named principle that 
meets and satisfies those instinctive notions of even- 
handed justice—of strict impartiality—of fitness— 
order—truth, which (except where a debauching so- 
phistry has paralysed the moral nature) take effect in 
every human breast, and form a groundwork upon 
which conscience lodges itself, and on which it rests its 
leverage. 

But now do we not discern an incongruity in these 
two beliefs ? does not the one doctrine cut across the 
path of the other, and seem to contradict, or to dislodge 
it? Logic-loving theologians have always seen, or have 
believed that they saw, this contrariety; and to meet 
the difficulty they have rejected, or evaded, or ignored 
the one or the other of these prime elements of the 


Christian ethics. Just here has been the reef upon 
23* 


270 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the sharp ridges of which systems of Theology have 
lodged themselves among the breakers. Systems, such 
as might show themselves with credit in colleges, and 
might be shaped into symmetry by scientific manipula- 
tion, must of course profess to be able to steer clear 
of these rocks, on either hand. Meantime humble- 
minded, diligent, intelligent, and non-logical readers 
of Christ’s discourses and parables, instead of being 
troubled by the consciousness of any such incongruity 
—instead of finding his teaching to be incoherent, find 
in it the rest of their spirits—find the principle of 
a genuine harmony, or moral rest. On the one hand 
the prospect of an absolute and irreversible alternative 
of happiness or woe takes effect, with unutterable force, 
upon the religious instincts, giving power and intensity 
to the religious life. On the other hand, the counter 
doctrine, which is not less distinctly set out to view, 
meets the requirements of a healthy reason, and of 
a conscience sensitive, well informed, and exercised 
among and upon the duties and trials of real life. 

But why does not Christ, the Teacher, himself fill 
up the chasm in his religious system? why does he 
not show us how two announcements, so dissimilar in 
their apparent meaning, may be brought into unison ? 
Did he not foresee the offence which the logical reason 
would here stumble at? As human teacher, or sage, 
he would no doubt have foreseen the difficulty, and in 
some way would have secured his scheme against ob- 
jection at this point. But he does not do this, even 
by a word. 

If we should be willing to think of Christ as more 
than a sage, then we may readily supply ourselves 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 271 


with an explanation of the omission, as thus. We may 
suppose, either that the mode in which the two princi- 
ples shall take effect in the future life may be such as 
could not be intelligibly presented to the human mind 
in its present stage ;—or that, even if this might be 
done, such a revelation must embrace more than could 
now be set before us for our good. So long therefore 
as Christ the Teacher of morals is listened to by man- 
kind, the two doctrines, each carrying all the force 
that belongs to it apart from the other, will continue 
to bear upon religious minds, and will preserve such in 
a state of moral acquiescence. 

We have spoken of Christ’s doctrine of a future 
life, and are now thinking of its threatening aspect, as 
a constituent of a religion supposed to have sprung 
from a human mind, and to have been contrived for 
effecting purposes that relate to this present life only. 
Thus regarded, I have said, the terms in which this 
doctrine is conveyed must be accepted in their obvious 
and popular sense. But yet, when they are taken in 
this sense, they carry a meaning from the pressure of 
which we are driven to seek relief—if it may be had, in 
criticism ;—or if not so, in some mitigating hypothesis ; 
or if this will not help us, then we are tempted to re- 
ject Christianity on this very score. There is however 
another source of help under the intensity of this 
weight, which it is easy to foresee is likely to unfold 
itself in the course of an improved biblical method; 
and it is of this sort.— 

—‘Already biblical critic’sm has reached a stage 
immeasurably in advance of the position which it oc- 
cupied only a few years ago; and perhaps we ought 


AH bd ™HE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


not now to be exacting much more of it than it has 
actually accomplished. Yet there is a movement for- 
ward which is not merely desirable, nor merely pos- 
sible, but almost certain to come about. This is a 
thorough and absolute emancipation of biblical inter- 
pretation from the trammels that have hitherto been 
“imposed upon it by our polemical theologies. When 
once this liberation has been effected, the utterances 
of Scripture will have room to take a new hold of the 
human mind—accepted as true in their simplest mean- 
ing; and then a genuine counterpoising of moral and 
spiritual principles will freely develope itself in a man- 
ner that shall give rest to the heart, whether or not 
a systematic coherence can be secured for scientific 
theology. 

Let us apply this supposition to the case before us. 
Why has not Christ’s teaching concerning an impartial 
and rigorous future retribution, touching all men, 
hitherto taken the prominent place which of right 
belongs to it in our theologies? Why? because we 
could not allow it to come into any such position with- 
out risk to the counter-doctrine of an absolute alterna- 
tive of good or evil; or without giving an advantage 
they would snatch at, to our antagonists, on the right 
hand, and on the left. 

But let the time come when all such sinister influ- 
ences shall be discarded with the contempt they 
deserve, and when all such dotard fears shall be dis- 
pelled by a salutary fear lest we personally be found 
flattering ourselves among fatal delusions; and then, 
this potent Christian element, working its way into the 
inert core of our now relaxed Christianism—touching 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. X78 


and wounding our fond conceit of individual impunity 
—breaking in upon the dreams of self-love, and dis- 
charging its anodynes; and then a healthful, and a 
health-giving apprehension, of which our own individual 
moral condition, and not the fate of other men, will be 
the object, dissipates, we know not how or why, the 
morbid moodiness which had so often sent us on a 
bootless search after some hitherto unthought-of and 
softened etymology of the avers of our Greek Testa- 
ment. 

Besides, this same style of faithful dealing with our- 
selves—an alarmed conscience holding a candle as 
often as we read our Bibles—will bring before us in 
distinct outline, the truth that, in its application to the 
millions around us—even to the unprivileged and the 
untaught millions of our brethren, a fearless interpre- 
tation of Christ’s doctrine concerning the impartial 
future retribution, avails immensely more in the clear- 
ing up of the difficulties that have saddened our medi- 
tative hours, than does, or than can, any imaginable 
novelty of interpretation, even the most lax that should 
be put upon an obnoxious phrase in the Gospels. 

It has been usual to think of Christ’s announcements 
of future punishment in relation to their direct bearing 
upon morals; and the question is asked how far this 
may have operated as a restraint upon the passions of 
men. On this ground appeals have been made to facts, 
in support of opposite conclusions. With this much- 
worn question I have nothing now to do, nor am in- 
clined to advance an uncalled-for opinion upon it. But 
there is a permanent and a very extensive product of 
those awful declarations, which, though it be not obvi- 


274 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


ous, and though it has seldom been adverted to, is of 
unquestionable reality, and may be traced in its opera- 
tion upon every page of religious history. As often as 
we are comparing the ancient mind with the modern 
mind, and notice the characteristics of the two very 
dissimilar moods of the same human nature, this influ- 
ence 1s recognizable. . : 

_ To this subject I have already adverted more than 
once in these Tracts, and shall now only bring it to its 
place in relation to my immediate purpose. 

The ancient civilization, with all its great and shin- 
ing qualities—qualities which have secured for it an im- 
mortal glory, though not a perpetuity in fact, wanted 
that which places our modern civilization upon a far 
more solid basis, and which is the reason at once of its 
perpetuity and of its progression. 

In the social system of cultured antiquity there was 
wanting an element of some kind—nor did it appear 
whence it could be drawn—which should confer upon 
the individual man, and upon woman also, a ground of 
self-esteem that should be exempt from arrogance :— 
there was needed too in every man, a reason for re- 
specting and promoting the welfare of other men which 
should stand good irrespectively of any estimate of 
their individual merits: there was wanting some princi- 
ple, or impulse of personal courage and fortitude, which 
should be available for the feeble as well as for the 
strong, and which should arm the individual man, with- 
out making him pugnacious, and make him unconquer- 
able without making him sullen:—there was wanting 
in the ancient mind, a motive so solid as that the 
loftiest virtues might rear themselves upon it as a basis, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 275 


and yet show no contempt of others: there was want- 
ing a ground of humility exempt from abjectness, and 
of grandeur of soul exempt from pride. 

Christ, the Saviour of men as to this present life, has 
supplied this want in an effective manner ;—for he has 
planted in the hearts of those who trust him as a 
teacher sent from God, a hope and a fear which sur- 
mounts, and which out-measures every other hope, and 
which expels every other fear ;—a fear too which gives 
an irresistible prompting to courage, and which sus- 
tains even the pusillanimous in a course of behaviour 
which the noblest spirits, without it, can barely emulate. 

That dozen of men, ignobly born as they were, which 
followed Jesus in his circuits through Galilee and 
Judea, fondly dreamed of palaces and princedoms 
which soon were to be their own, when in truth, they 
were about to be sent forth upon a course of suffering 
intensely severe. It was needful to arm them for this 
unlooked conflict, and this requisite preparation, as it 
included powerful motives of the happiest complexion, 
so did it embrace a dread so deep that it should be 
proof against the extremest wrench of bodily anguish. 
On the one hand, this Teacher of men had said—“ Fear 
not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure 
to give you the kingdom :’”’—but on the other hand he 
had said, even to these his ‘friends’ —“‘ Fear not them 
which can kill the body, and after that have nothing 
more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom 
ye shall fear;—fear him which hath power, after he 
hath killed, to cast into Gehenna; yea, I say unto you, 
fear him.” And what was this Gehenna?—it was the 


276 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


place where, according to the same Teacher, “their 
fire is not quenched, and where their worm dieth not.” 

Now we of this age may expound as we think fit 
these appalling words; or may extenuate these phrases; 
—or if we please, let us cast away the whole doctrine 
as intolerable and incredible.—Let us do so; but it is 
a matter of history, out of question, that the apostolic 
Church, and the Church of later times, took it, 
word for word, in the whole of its apparent value. It 
is true that several attempts were made to substantiate 
a mitigated sense; but it is certain that the language 
of Christ, in regard to the future life, was constantly 
on the lips of martyrs, throughout the suffering cen- 
turies. Often and often was it heard issuing from out 
of the midst of the fire, and was lisped by the quivering 
lips of women and children while writhing on the rack. 

These were the actual fruits of Christ’s stern doctrine 
of the “wrath to come,’ and by such means as these 
was it that the world was at length cleansed of the pest 
of licentious gods and goddesses. But there were other 
and later fruits of the same belief which have been not 
of less moment, albeit less direct, and less conspicuous. 

An unclouded belief concerning the future life, with 
its awful alternative of endless good or ill—a belief of 
inheriting a bright immortality by favour, not by merit 
—a belief of individual relationship to the infinite and 
Eternal Being—a commingled or aggregate persuasion 
yf this sort solves the problem that has been stated 
tbove; for it supplies to the individual man—and 
voman too—and child—it supplies a ground of self- 
steem that is exempt from arrogance ;—it furnishes a 
sonstant reason for respecting the welfare of others, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. OTT 


standing good irrespectively of their individual merit ; 
it conveys to the heart an impulse of personal courage, 
and of fortitude, available by the feeble as well as by 
the strong: it arms the individual man without making 
him pugnacious;—it renders him -proof against des- 
potism, but it does not make him sullen. This aggre- 
gate belief—the fruit of Christ’s teaching—yields to 
the mind and to the heart, a basis upon which the 
loftiest virtues may rear themselves, without showing 
contempt toward others; and it supplies a ground of 
humility free from abjectness, and of greatness exempt 
from pride. 


The ancient civilization, compared with the modern, 
that is to say, the civilization of the people of Western 
Europe, offers to the eye the prominent difference that 
results from the position of woman—her personal 
purity, and dignity, and her consequent influence in 
society, generally, and in the domestic circle, specially. 
Now it ought not to be affirmed—for such an allega- 
tion could not be put beyond question by an appeal to 
facts, that this vast difference, with its incalculable 
consequences, favourable as they are to the stability 
of modern nations, is wholly attributable to Christianity, 
either in the way of explict injunction, or of moral 
influence. The social position of woman—her personal 
qualities and virtues—her place and her power, as wife 
and as mother, are the characteristics of certain races ; 
and being so, they mark those races as destined for 
progress, and as susceptible of refinement; while fami- 
lies or nations that want the same inborn distinction, 
are doomed to be stationary through thousands of 

24 


278 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


years ; or they are now melting away from the coun- 
tries they once filled. 

But in relation to the place which woman occupies, 
and to her qualifications for filling it, these two affirma- 
tions are safe from contradiction, namely, first this, 
that, as often as Christianity is offered to the accept- 
ance of nations which do not possess this mark of no- 
bility, as there can be no compromise on this ground, 
such races must either acquire, with the new religion, 
this redeeming instinct; or not acquiring it, Chris- 
tianity retires from their borders, and when it does so, 
it consigns them to hopeless barbarism, or to gradual 
disappearance from among nations. 

But secondly, this may be affirmed—that in any 
community, (assumed to be noble in this special sense, ) 
in which the Gospel takes a firm hold of many minds, 
and in which it is publicly recognized as a final au- 
thority, it makes provision for securing the rights, the 
influence, and the personal dignity of woman—not in- 
deed by legislating upon polygamy, adultery, con- 
cubinage; but in a far more effective manner—in truth 
in the only mode that could be effective—namely, by 
imposing the restraints of personal virtue, purity, and 
continence upon man. Where men are virtuous, women 
will be pure, and where women are pure they will hold 
their place without the help of laws. 

Now we need look no further than this in search of 
what should be regarded as the primary conditions of 
national well-being, and accepting the two above speci- 
fied as sufficient, might in the manner following put 
our theorem into form. Given, a community within 
which many may always be found whose individuality 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 279 


is at once marked and secured by their possession of 
profound religious convictions, and corresponding moral 
sentiments, which they will adhere to and will openly 
profess, even at the peril or cost of life itself: thus 
then we have a guarantee for religious liberty within 
that community, and through that, of civil and politi- 
cal liberty; and by means of these together, there 
takes place the highest possible developement of human 
nature, individually and socially. Given also a com- 
munity within which certain evangelic dicta, such for 
instance as that comprehensive rule issued by Christ, 
as recorded by Marruew, (v. 28,) or that one by his 
minister, (HEBREWS xili. 4,) are held to carry with 
them the awful sanction of Divine Law; and then, as 
the sure consequence, we have a social system which 
is sound at the core; not false and putrescent: we 
have a system within which the brightest and the best 
felicity which earth can yield to man shall be enjoyed 
in thousands of homes :—we have a social system within 
which, from thousands of sources—obscure and illus- 
trious, from cottages and from mansions, from attics 
and lodgings, from shop parlours, and from halls of 
splendour, there shall spring forth, and spread them- 
selves abroad perpetually, all the stern virtues, and all 
the soft, warm, and heavenlike affections; all the smil- 
ing bright-eyed graces of innocent youth, and all the 
tearful and yearning sympathies of matron life; in a 
word, all those bosom-heaving joys, and all those soul- 
healing griefs which render earth such, that men, 
while in the fruition of so much pure good, feel and 
know that there must be a Heaven to come, where 
earth’s blossoms shall ripen into undecaying fruits. 


280 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


But now as to all this CHRIST-GIVEN earthly good, 
on what terms is it to be had, or in compliance with 
what conditions is it to be made sure to any people? 

Nothing more simple or certain than the reply:— 
the one condition is this, that Curist, the ‘author 
and finisher” of a faith carrying with it these prin- 
ciples of earthly well-being, shall be thought of and 
listened to as God’s authenticated minister, so as that 
we are sure that not one of his words shall fall to the 
ground, or fail to take effect upon ourselves, here or 
hereafter. 

In other words, there must be available, in a form 
adapted to the reasonable requirements of an instructed 
people—evidence sufficient, on the ground of which the 
convictions of such a community may securely rest. 
BELIEF is the one condition which we need: grant it; 
and the consequences above-named follow. 

If Christ be trusted in—if Christ be feared as he 
who shall come to be our judge, and if he be loved as 
our Deliverer, he becomes at once ‘the Saviour of all 
men,” and is then the Giver, in this present life, of 
Liberty, Love, Virtue, and whatever of peace and 
felicity this life may be made to embrace in its seventy 
years. 

Now I come round to my immediate purpose in this 
section, which is to show the bearing of the super- 
natural element of the Christian system upon its per- 
petual influence in the world, as the source, and the 
impelling reason of secular good and of earthly felicity, 
or of solace and mitigation, as the case may be, to the 
human family. Remove the supernatural from the 
Gospels, or, in other words, reduce the evangelic his- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 281 


tories, by aid of some unintelligible hypothesis (Ger- 
man-born) to the level of an inane jumble of credulity, 
extravagance, and myth-power, (whatever this may be,) 
and then Christianity will go to its place, as to any 
effective value, in relation to humanizing and benevo- 
lent influences and enterprizes—a place, say, a few de- 
grees above the level of somé passages in Epictetus 
and M. Aurelius. 

Whatever may be the present estimated value of 
the best pages of classical antiquity, considered as a 
moral force, now in operation for the good of man- 
kind—then the residual value of the Gospels and 
Epistles—after the miracles have been driven off in 
the furnace of “historic criticism’—will be (may you 
not grant it?) about twice as much! In relation to 
the support of vegetable and animal life, let us ask, 
what would be the value of twice moonlight ? 

The Gospel is a FORCE in the world, it is a force 
available for the good of man, not because it is Wis- 
dom, but because it is Power. Whence comes its 
power? ‘Tell me whence it will come after you have 
persuaded the world that, henceforward, in the book 
of history, it must be catalogued along with Frauds? 

It is a customary observation, or truism, to say that 
the power of enjoyment and the power of suffering— 
necessarily correlatives—are directly as the quantity 
of the intellectual and moral faculty, and in proportion 
to the development of both. There may therefore 
always be room for the question how far, in a world 
‘such as this, abounding as it does in sources of suffer- 
ing, an increase of intellectual and moral faculty, and 
the developement of them, are truly to be desired. A 

24* 


282 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


question such as this we leave where it stands. But 
this is certain, that, in the mechanism of human nature 
a remedial provision is made for the simultaneous and 
proportionate enlargement of those helpful sympathies 
which bind us together, in weal or woe, and which 
widen infinitely the interval between the cultured and 
morally developed man, and the savage. Am I, and 
are those around me, capable of enjoying and of suf- 
fering a thousand times more than is my brother, the 
troglodite ?—yes, but then I may reckon upon receiy- 
ing all sorts of aids and solaces—substantial help and 
tearful love, in my hour of suffering; while he is left 
in his den to be eaten alive by wild dogs or vultures. 

Nevertheless, while it is true that the benevolent 
affections, and the natural impulses of sympathy do, 
in a general way, keep pace with the expansion of the 
intellectual and moral faculties, it is also true that the 
force actually available in the world, at any time, for 
the relief of want, and for the assuagement of pain and 
woe, needs a constant momentum to be supplied to it 
from some energy that is foreign to ztself. It is the 
presence of this constant force, drawn from a definite 
religious belief, which makes the difference between 
the vague philanthropy of the best times of ancient 
refinement, and the effective benevolence of Christian- 
ized modern communities. But the momentum sup- 
plied by the Gospel is a force which disappears—which 
is utterly gone, gone for ever, when Belief in its au- 
thority, as attested by miracles, is destroyed. 

This assertion might seem to need no proving, but 
it may admit of something to be said in the way of 
illustration. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 288 


Let it be affirmed, on your side, that a miracle is 
abstractedly impossible, and that no such event has 
ever occurred in the world’s history; or that if it had 
occurred, it could not have been so reported to us as 
should now command our assent. Furthermore, let it 
be said that the mass of mankind have in all ages ad- 
mitted such reports greedily, or in the exercise of 
little discrimination. No such allegations, or the like 
to them, can affect my present argument. The evan- 
gelic miracles have in fact been accepted as true, and 
they are so accepted at this present time; and the 
evidence in support of them is of such force that it 
commands the assent of educated men, who at the 
same time reject with contempt the entire mass of that 
spurious stuff which crams Church histories. This 
being the fact, the supernatural element of Christianity 
is an extant efficient cause, working itself out now in 
the movements of every Christianized community. 
Christian benevolence, expressing itself in a thousand 
forms of appliance, as related to the ten thousand 
phases of human suffering and degradation, is not a 
vapid sentiment with a tear on each cheek; nor is it 
an ambulatory wisdom, nor is it a schirrous humanity, 
grown upon political economy; but it is a calculable 
resource, occupying a principal place in the estimate 
of a people’s means of regeneration and progress. 
Belief in the supernatural lifts this estimate: disbe- 
lief sinks it below zero. BELIEF is the spring or rea- 
son of practical benevolence in a country: DISBELIEF 
is the azote of the moral world. 

Whether it be gladly and cordially, or grudgingly 
and formally, men on all hands do yield themselves, 


284 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


their personal services, or their purses, or both, to the 
assessments of authoritative Christian benevolence. To 
some extent the purest and most heavenlike impulses, 
and toa great extent conventional practices, feed Chris- 
tian charity, public and private, and keep it a-going; 
but both alike take their rise from a belief which is held 
to carry with it the weight of Divine law—law that 
shall be valid in a future life. 

Instead of thinking of so mixed and ambiguous a 
mass as the national mind, let us now fix our atten- 
tion upon the restricted field of a Church-going com- 
munity, ina country like England. The minds that 
fill this narrower field may be distributed into three 
classes, as thus: there is, first, the large class of the 
inert, comprehending the thousands, young and old, 
who yield themselves, in various degrees of ductility 
or malleability, to the forces that are brought to bear 
upon them. ‘The second class includes the smaller 
number of the repugnant, or recalcitrant, who are held 
within the Christian-charity pale by nothing better 
than secondary or sinister motives. These are those 
who are restrained from flagitious evil, and who are 
compelled to take a share in what is good, by motives 
that are ready to snap at any instant. Then there 
is the third class—the true, the loving, the heart- 
whole, the BELIEVING ;—those whose presence is the 
life-blood of the body ecclesiastical, spiritual and moral. 

Now with these three clearly distinguishable classes 
in view, as filling churches—side by side once a-week 
in pews—let me imagine that we had the power to try 
the two experiments following :— 

First, let it be that, from some hitherto unsuspected 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 284 


source, there has come up evidence, palpably contra- 
dictory of the Gospel history, as to its supernatural 
element. A flaw in the evidence has been brought 
forward—a flaw of such a kind as leaves no place for 
explanation. This discovery so acts upon the Church- 
going class as that the religious persuasion of the -body 
suddenly collapses. Belief is gone; that is to say, all 
feeling toward Christianity as a revelation from God, 
miraculously attested, and having a valid claim to our 
reverential regard, has ceased. We have still in our 
hands the very same Text, with all its excellent maxims, 
and its elevating sentiments, and its eloquent passages. 
But the parchment no longer entitles us to an estate— 
the parchment no longer alarms us with the threat of 
future pains. 

The Church bell goes the next Sunday morning 
after this fatal discovery has been noised abroad, and, 
scarcely knowing why, the congregation obeys the call. 
But ata year’s end shall we find these same pews 
filled with families, taking a part in worship, and 
‘listening to a preacher? I think not. In one such 
Church there will be enacted a sensuous theatric super- 
stition ;—in another a lecturer will take his turn; and 
there will be a platform, a moderator, and a debate ; 
and the question will be—I should blush to put it in 
words, for I fancy of what quality that question will 
be. You will comfort me by the assurance that the 
pulpits from which fanatics have been driven will hence- 
forward be occupied by philosophers—that 1s to say, 
by men who will set about mending the world, and 
keeping it in repair by application of abstract truths— 
pure Theisms. Yes, and so may a man employ himself 


286 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


in carving a block of granite with a penknife, or in 
moulding a mass of clay with a straw. 

You. have lost your standing of unmeasured hope 
and fear, grounded upon an attested message from 
God; and now what has become of the inert multi- 
tude? Do you think they will be patient listeners to 
your Spinoza Gospel? or will they comprehend your 
Hegelian nihilism? I think this mass will have gently 
subsided into its own native slough of easy, pleasure- 
loving sensuousness and sensuality. 

The repugnant and the ungovernable, where are 
they? Lately, and so long as religious opinion hemmed 
them in, they were restrained or abashed toa great 
extent. But now they are told that all shall be well 
with them in the end—that the alarms of conscience 
are nugatory misgivings, which should be treated with 
sulphate of quinine and a shower-bath. They are 
assured that philosophers, though they are not agreed 
upon the question whether ‘‘ absorption” or “ annihi- 
lation’’ is to be the next stage of the “I” or the 
‘ME,’ yet are unanimous in the opinion that the one 
or the other of these desirable issues awaits us; and 
certainly not the fabled immortality of the Christian 
superstition. 

I ask you—and I ask you to give me an outspoken 
and truthful answer to this question—whether, in the 
now actual state of abstract Philosophy, as taught 
among those who reject Christianity, any announce- 
ment that should be morally better than this can be 
made when you convoke the Church-going inert mul- 
titude to listen to their last sermon, and to receive the 
philosophic benediction ? 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 287 


But what has become of the cordial Few—whither 
has fled the life-blood of the social body? They have 
sickened and fainted on the spot where these sounds of 
dismay first fell upon their hearing. Their hearts broke 
at the blow. They can no more lift a hand in works 
of charity; they can no more set a foot forward upon 
the flinty path of self-denying love. The wretched 
and the hungry and the sick call for them; but they 
are as the dead that hear not. 

But I now imagine a contrary course of things, not 
a sudden and general enhancement of religious feeling, 
arising we know not whence or why, and after a while 
subsiding ; but what might fitly be called—a Restora- 
tion of Belief; that is to say, a confirmed rational 
confidence in the Divine authority of Christianity as 
attested by the miracles recorded in the Gospels. 

In what manner such a renovation of the belief of 
an instructed people might be spoken of as likely to 
come about, I need not now stay to inquire. It is 
sufficient to say that whereas the critical and historic 
argument in support of this belief stands at this time 
intact and valid, having of late years passed through 
the severest process of adverse analysis, almost any 
Incidental occurrence, almost any casual coincidence 
turning up, unlooked for, on the path of the critic or 
the antiquarian, which should arrest attention and fix 
it upon the facts of the evangelic history, would suffice 
for bringing on the sort of revolution I am now think- 
ing of. 

What is needed just now is not the creation or the 
evolution of a new body of evidence, but the awaken- 
ing and riveting of attention upon that which has long 


288 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


been in our hands. In a pitchy-dark night a party of 
travelers has come, they know not where; but they 
feel that a pavement is under their feet: it 1s affirmed 
among them, and debated, and denied, that they have 
reached the principal square of a city :—at the instant 
a flash of lightning reveals the broad fronts of palaces, 
with a back-ground of domes, spires, castles; and thus 
all argument isat anend. I think that at this very 
moment, when a murky cloud of atheistic darkness has 
settled itself down upon continental Europe, the skirts 
of which chill these islands, the incidental coming up 
of any corroborative facts, within and upon the walks 
of historical criticism or of science, which should en- 
gage the attention of educated men, would be enough 
to dissipate this gloom, as affecting ourselves, and to 
refresh and restore our confidence in the Truth which, 
as a nation, we profess. 

But grant only such a refreshment to be possible, 
and imagine it actually to have taken place, and then, 
as if awakening from a troubled dream, as if shaking 
off a lethargy, we feel that the unseen and the future, 
as set before us in the Gospel, are near at hand, and 
that this future is what awaits each of us at every 
instant. Now the consequences, personal and social, 
of such a return to a vivid Christian Belief, all go over 
to the side of those energies which promote and con- 
firm our individual well-being, and the welfare of the 
community ; that is to say, Christ becomes, at once, the 
Saviour of the living, the moment when his claim to be 
such is assented to in the world. And when this claim 
is allowed, then the miraculous attestations upon which 
it rests come into a direct causal connexion with that 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 289 


earthly blessedness, of which the Christian system con- 
tains the elements. 

Without calling upon the imagination for aid, we 
may trace this connexion till we come to facts that are 
now under our eye: we begin to follow the links of 
this chain in that hour when, as the sun was going 
down behind the Galilean hills, and the waters of the 
lake were darkening, a transaction had place which, 
from that moment to this, has never ceased to yield its 
results in the form of ponderable and calculable chari- 
ties, whence the hungry and wretched throughout all 
time since have drawn supplies. 

Jesus seeing the multitudes had compassion on them, 
because they had continued crowding around him, day 
after day, until their stores were spent. He marshalled 
them in companies—for He was a lover of order; He 
blessed the bread that came to His hand, and from 
that hand distribution was made until all were satis- 
fied. There are two things noticeable in this event. 
First, there is the authentication which it, contains of 
those better impulses of our nature which prompt us 
to consider the welfare and comfort of others, and to 
do whatever may be done to meet the occasion that at 
any time calls up compassion. This is the doctrine of 
this history. Next comes its legislative import. To 
find this we turn over a page in the Gospels, and there 
are forewarned that in the closing act of Christ’s ad- 
ministration of mundane affairs this should be held to 
be a valid judicial test of character—‘ I was an hun- 
gered and ye fed Me;” or, on the contrary, “I was 
an hungered and ye gave Me no meat.” If this be the 
rule of the future judgment, then the feeding of the 

25 


290 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


four thousand is not merely an exemplification of be- 
nevolence, which we may do well to imitate ;—it is 
much more. 

But whence comes this further and deeper meaning 
of this instance? It springs directly from the miracle. 
If this history be true, then are we all yet to be dealt 
with according to the above-named rule or law, which 
we find to be in that case made and provided. 

Now through all the years of these eighteen cen- 
turies past, this history has been accepted as true—and 
moreover the judicial inference has been duly ap- 
pended to the history among Christian nations, and it 
is so now, and the result now, as always it has been, 1s 
seen in ten thousand “works of mercy” as they are 
called—public and private—stated and occasional; the 
charities administered by ‘‘committees’’—the crust 
given at the cottage-gate; the alms, in ways innumerable, 
through which, at the prompting of natural sympathies, 
strengthened, deepened, enforced by the Christian rule, 
and by men’s belief in the Christian future, the un- 
blessed—the luckless, the unhelpful, the feeble, the de- 
crepit, the diseased, the maimed, the blind, the deaf, 
the insane, receive such help as their several cases call 
for, and admit of, and which the hand, heart, and 
purse of their fellows may afford. The Evangelist tells 
us that, in one of the instances now referred to, the 
number of the men was about five thousand, beside 
women and children; say seven thousand altogether: 
now if we take each unit of that number, and give it 
a place at the head of hundreds of thousands, we shall 
still fall short of the truth in computing the hosts of 
the needy who, in the direct line of moral causation, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 291 


have, through the course of time, eaten their bread 
daily from those Galilean baskets. The doctrines—the 
precept, the example, alone, would not have taken 
effect in any such manner as this; but it has been the 
DOCTRINE—authenticated by the MIRACLE: it has been, 
not mere teaching ;—but legislative teaching. 

Now there is a feeling which is natural, and there- 
fore not in itself to be reprehended, impelling us to 
ask that where legislation carries with it the most ex- 
treme consequences, touching us individually, the au- 
thentication should not come to us remotely, or be 
attainable inferentially only, but that it should come 
home to every man’s consciousness, either through his 
senses or his understanding, in a mode that shall be 
unambiguous and categorical. Hence the demand so 
often repeated—“ show us a sign from Heaven.” ‘ Give 
to us—even to the men of this generation, a proof that 
the things written in the Book are sure, and that we 
shall find them so hereafter.” 

I need not here reiterate the customary replies to 
this demand, and which, if fairly weighed, should I 
think be deemed valid and sufficient. But while, as 
now, we are thinking of Christianity as a secular re- 
forming force, intended by its Author to take effect 
through the lapse of ages, then I see, in the mode that 
has been chosen for establishing the authority of the 
system in the minds of men, throughout all time, a 
proof, not merely of a profound knowledge of the struc- 
ture and laws of the human mind; but also a fore- 
knowledge (how wonderful if its author were such only 
as you suppose him) of those revolutions in the intel- 
lectual as well as the moral condition of cultured na- 


992, THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


tions which the flow of centuries was destined to bring 
about! ‘T'o me it seems as if the special mood or tem- 
per of this very half century in which our lot is cast, 
had been in the view of Him whose name this system 
carries. 

It is trite to say that during ages of barbarism and 
of popular ignorance, and of its attendant credulity, 
genuine miracles could scarcely, under any conditions, 
be made to offer themselves as infallibly distinguished 
from the spurious; but unless they did so, their legzsla- 
tive authority would be vitiated. If I go back to the 
times of the venerable Bede, or of Gregory of Tours, 
my mood of mind is such that a miracle is congruous 
with it; and I can look at it calmly, in its own light; 
it does not put me aghast. But then I have no habits 
of thought, I have no discriminative temper, impelling, 
or indeed enabling me to deal discretively with the 
wonders that are daily reported and shown off before 
me. The genuine miracle, therefore, would retain little 
or none of its distinctive force. 

If from that twilight age I come down to these days, 
even to the times of Laplace and of Playfair, in which 
ScIENCE bears sway, and when PHILOSOPHY is in the 
wane, or 1s even scouted—at such a time, the occur- 
rence of a miracle would be to me a shock or a vio- 
lence, because there is nothing of homogeneous quality 
in my present intellectual condition. Whether I will 
or not, I am now governed, and in truth am overawed, 
by the dry, rigorous, and exceptive temper of Science, 
and by the soulless and boastful mood of mechanical 
achievement. Doing homage, as I cannot help doing, 
to this spirit of the times, the supernatural has moved 


THE RESTORATION OB BELIEF. 293 


off far beyond my utmost range of thought. But let 
me not forget that this now-uppermost mood is the 
mood of a period only: it is not to be thought of as if it 
were a normal condition of human nature: far from 
it! Aristotle is not a model man; it were better to 
take Plato as such. It is indeed a great thing to re- 
solve nebule, and to construct steam navies, and to 
convey thought over land and across oceans, and round 
the equator upon galvanic wires:—these things are 
glories if we are comparing our own time with any 
times that are past: but they are, and they ought to 
be accounted woeful disgraces, if we hear them boasted 
of as feats that symbolize the powers of the human 
mind in its ultimate and highest possible condition ! 
If, in the next age, PuiLosopny should dare to breathe 
again, and should become bold enough to teach humil- 
ity to Science, then man—spiritual and immortal as he 
is—might be trusted to witness miracles anew; and 
thus might step forward into the place that becomes 
him, where he would calmly hold correspondence, as 
at the first, with a stage of the universe higher than 
this, and would be permitted to look onward toward 
that eternity, on the threshold of which his foot is even 
now placed. And yet perhaps it will always be true that, 
in proportion as men become consistently reasonable, and 
acquire the habitude of yielding themselves rmplicitly 
and almost involuntarily to the conclusions of an au- 
thenticated practical logic, they will gladly accept, as 
best for them, the unchanging and the unchangeable 
certainties of historic evidence ; and being content with — 
these, will cease even to desire recurrent revelations, 


as from the unseen world. 
Zon 


294 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


At this moment, a very little of the supernatural, 
taking place in the room next to that in which I am 
sitting, might shake my reason ; for it would not find 
me in a state to yield my judgment or conscience to 
its bidding. Or, if it did not make the brain curdle, 
it would bring me under peril of a far worse kind; for 
I might be tempted so to resist this sort of appeal as to 
do a damage, that must be irremediable, to the moral 
and religious constitution of the mind. 

Quite of another sort would be an occurrence such 
as I have already supposed—namely—That, in the 
course of critical and historical studies, any residue of 
ambiguity still attaching to portions of the evangelic 
writings should be dispelled ; while new corroborations, 
such as in the nature of things spring up whenever a 
genuine history is subjected to severe scrutiny, are 
continually presenting themselves :-—this species of 
augmenting certainty, coming in upon the reasoning 
faculty in a mode the most congruous with it, in its 
present state, invigorates religious belief, and yet gives 
rise to no excitement; faith is deepened, and is made 
to rest upon a basis, co-extensive with the intellectual 
and moral faculties. 

If at any time amid the toils and tumultuous striy- 
ings of the open world, or if, when too long exposed 
to the fictitious excitement of non-christianized intel- 
lectual society, or if when, well satisfied with earth’s 
choicest delights, I so rest in them as to forget the 
life future in the flowery paradise of domestic sweet- 
ness—if at any such time I suddenly awake to the 
infinite peril of losing my hold of immortality, what IL 
should ask of Him who ‘“‘knoweth our frame,” and its 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 295 


fraility, would not be a new miracle wrought in my 
sight, but an hour’s reading of the narrative of the 
miracles of the apostolic age, with a stringent convic- 
tion that this record is true, and that in those wonders 
the hand of the Almighty was indeed stretched out. 


Just now we are all of us saying it, and we are say- 
ing it under the impulse of the most diverse and oppo- 
site anticipations, that the world, or rather, those 
members of the human family that are progressive, 
have, within these few years past, come into a position 
that is new, and that is full of promise. New con- 
ditions, marvellous indeed, attach to the mere mechan- 
ism of common life; but more than this, new views of 
the ends and purposes of the social structure have 
come to be entertained, and have possessed themselves 
of leading minds; deep sympathies and solicitudes, 
which were barely present to the consciousness of any 
in the last century, take effect upon thousands of 
sensitive and benevolent minds in this. The rudest 
and most ordinary impulses of worldly interest, which 
heretofore wrought their purposes in their own style, 
and came to a pause when they had attained their 
end, have come of late—no one can tell why—to under- 
work purposes of a higher order, and thus, like peasants 
trudging along a miry road with royal despatches 
bound in their girdles, they are diffusing blessings, 
where heretofore they had been recognized only as. 
what, in guise and speech, they seem. There is nothing 
moveable, that is not astir; every social interest is in 
its crisis:—the sedimentary deposits of past ages are 


296 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


heaving up, and are “dislocated. History has written 
out a long chapter of man’s past fortunes, and a new 
leaf is even now rustling between her fingers. 

Thus far we are agreed; but not at all agreed either 
as to the principles under the guidance of which the 
proximate course of events shall proceed, or as to the 
issue of the movement. On this ground’ an extreme 
disagreement takes its rise. Two roads offering them- 
selves as the future highway of the nations, diverge at 
this point. You are straining the eye in looking along 
one of these ways: my belief, as a Christian, is direct- 
ing me to look along the other. What the precise 
grounds of your anticipations are, if warranted by facts, 
or if they be better than gay reveries, I do not know, 
and need not inquire :—whether they are bright or 
gloomy I do not know; perhaps they are alternately 
the one and the other, for this is likely to happen 
when theories which we would wish to cling to are con- 
tending in our minds against the uniform testimony 
of experience. 

As to my anticipations, though they are steadily 
bright, they are not unmixedly so, far from it: they 
_ much resemble one’s prospects for a day’s journey 
when, though the barometer has been slowly rising 
all night, the morning hour is much overclouded. T 
occupy two independent grounds of divination: the 
first is a purely secular calculation of that course of 
events which seems not improbable—all things now 
‘present being taken into the account; but my second 
source of conjecture, as to the future, is a sketch of 
the world’s way onward, which has been put into my 
hand from above, and which I look into with conf- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 297 


dence. What I distrust is, not the sketch, but my own 
hastiness in reading off the lettering. 

Yet assuredly Iam liable to no such overweening 
delusion as this—that I should sit down, with the pages 
of Isaiah, Daniel, and St. John before me, and should 
attempt to write the newspapers ten years in advance! 
This is a folly which has stood in the way, hitherto, of 
a warrantable use of the prophetic writings. Jam no 
fortune-teller for Czars and kings, and have no wish 
to peruse the palms of the “great men and the 
captains;” but, from the general import, or, as we 
colloquially say, from the drift and upshot of the pro- 
phetic writings—those of the Hebrew Scriptures espe- 
cially, I gather such things as these—and in specify- 
ing them, every diligent reader of the Bible will at 
once recollect the passages to which I might refer ; 
and as to others, a foot-note of references would be 
thrown away. 

I look forward to a time when national distinctions 
of race, language, and geographical location shall con- 
tinually be melting away, at least so far as they may 
ultimately be obstructive of the brotherhood of the 
human family. That centralization—apart from uni- 
versal empire—which a true understanding of the con- 
ditions of social well-being tends to bring about, and 
which it is now in course of bringing about, is, I think, 
embraced or implied throughout the prophetic writings. 
On the same grounds I look for a future time when 
Right for the many, or, better expressed, when RIGHT 
for ALL, shall be the sovereign and irresistible principle 
in every community. As to Right for the many, it 
has taken to itself a conventional meaning, which differs 


295 . THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


little, if at all, from a periodic overthrow of society, 
such as may give the undermost class their time of 
plunder. But Ricur for ALL, means social stability ; 
and this one idea of STABILITY, as opposed to anarchy 
and to periodic convulsions, meets us everywhere on the 
prophetic pages. Then, as the consequence of this my 
first anticipation, I look for a time when ‘the material 
welfare, or, as we say, the earthly and daily comfort 
and enjoyment of the many—or let us rather say of 
all, so that we may exclude that banditti meaning which 
radicalism clings to—when this well-doing for all— 
this secure holding of the most needful things of life, 
shall be so much thought of as shall in. fact realize 
it in a continually more and more complete manner. 
Between the two co-operative influences of an iron 
sense of right and justice on the one hand, and of 
humanizing and soft-hearted sympathies on the other, 
an intense feeling shall pervade the social mass, under 
the operation of which, want—still incident as it must 
be to man—and squalor, and houseless discomfort, and, 
what is worse, cellared wretchedness, and disease—the 
child of filth, shall always be in process of sublimation, 
and shall be driven off, as one may say, from the 
social mass, by its high internal temperature. A 
strong feeling of uneasiness at the sight or thought 
of privation and bodily misery shall be always ridding 
the world of these ever-recurrent evils. I look for a 
time, not fabulous and impossible—not rosy and 
celestial, but earthlike and sunny, when every man— 
absolutely secure from violence, and moderately at 
ease, shall sit, in home style, under, or near to, as he 
likes best, his vine and fig-tree, none daring, or even 


ws 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 299 


wishing, to make him afraid. I do not look for a time, 
on this earth, when there shall be no surgeon’s work— 
no hospitals, no infirmaries, no police; but I do be- 
lieve in an age of individual and domestic bliss, such as 
is pictured in some sweet odes and stirring paragraphs 
of my Bible. I believe in a time yet to come, when 
Hr who—eternal shame upon Manichees, upon As- 
cetics, upon Fanatics of all sorts—‘‘ manifested His 
glory” first, by being a willing guest at a wedding, 
and then and there showing that Creation is His own 
—-when Hz shall bless the world by bringing at once 
His iron sceptre of righteousness and His law of love 
to bear upon the temporal good of all men. I look for 
a time, when He who is “ King of Peace” and “ King 
of Righteousness,” shall rule the nations under both 
titles; and when, as a consequence of the establish- 
ment of uncontradicted Truth, and of Reason, safe from 
sophistry, and of right, bowed to and enforced, there 
shall be abundance of earthly felicity, to last until this 
planet has wound up its destined story. 

In the course of those events that have marked the 
years of this current century—that is to say, those 
ostensible matters which history takes account of—I 
scarcely discern any indications of the coming on of 
such an era of mundane welfare. One may imagine, 
to-day, that things are taking a turn in this better di- 
rection; but to-morrow (as so many past to-morrows 
have done) will perhaps scatter every supposition of 
the sort, and break it up as a dream. But though the 
evolving fortunes of nations do not clearly, if at all, 
foreshow the golden age at hand, yet it is true that 
those who have been watching the unrecorded move- 


300 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


ments of the human mind—in Europe, throughout these 
fifty years, and who have been used to let down a line 
into the under-current, and have noted its shiftings, 
have come to think that those preparations—intellec- 
tual, moral, and political—which would be the proper 
precursors of a new and better era, have not only had a 
commencement, but have been making progress at a 
rapid rate. 

I shall risk nothing on ground where it is so easy to 
fancy this and that, just as may suit one’s purpose in 
an argument. I shall put into your hand none of that 
advantage which you would so soon snatch at, if I were 
to venture forward a few steps on this path. 

There is, however, one of these preliminary moye- 
ments which strictly belongs to my present subject, and 
to which, a second time (p. 249) and in concluding this 
section, I tvill advert. What I mean is that working 
off of the anti-christian and atheistic philosophy which 
is now in such active progress. 

You and I are just now looking at Christianity from 
the same level :—you are regarding it as an invention 
of man, because, as you say, you see in it no marks of 
a higher origin :—it is, you think, a scheme of belief 
and of morals which two or three Jews of the times of 
‘Tiberius and Nero may easily be thought capable of 
concocting. ‘This is your belief, and I am so thinking 
of it (monstrous hypothesis!) to serve a ‘momentary 
purpose in an argument. 

Now while forcing myself into this false position, and 
persuading myself that the Gospel asserts nothing which 
we shall find to be true in the next stage of our exist- 
ence, then I am perfectly certain that, on mere grounds 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 301 


of secular philanthropy, nothing is so much to be wished 
for as the spread, the corroboration, the Restoration of 
this Christian Belief. I am perfectly certain that a 
nation has an infinitely better prospect of coming into 
the enjoyment of peaceful good, while holding this be- 
lief, than it can have in rejecting it, and in taking in 
its stead—what ?—Tell me, I pray you, what there is 
to be taken! 

At the impulse of this firm persuasion I now there- 
fore exult in looking on while the process is in progress 
which shall issue in the final engulphing of the several 
anti-christian Philosophies which are at present making 
a noise in the world. Each in its own way, and all to- 
gether, these schemes are forcing themselves down the 
slimy incline that shall shoot them, one and all, into 
the bottomless slough of exploded and forgotten absur- 
dities. 

You are acquainted, I may presume, with the course 
of abstract speculation in modern times, from Spinoza 
down to these days of the Positive Philosophy. Now if 
we both of us lay aside every lingering feeling of relv- 
gious anxiety—if we think of Theologic Science just as 
we think of any one of the physical sciences, then it 
is impossible that we should differ as to what must be 
the issue of the present course of reasoning on the road 
of Disbelief. 

We see—and do you not see it as I do, and smile to 
see it ?—we see intelligent and amiable men struggling 
to keep their footing on some ledge, short of the gulf: 
—rosy-cheeked, honey-lipped gentlemen, they are, who 
would gladly keep entire a Theism—patched with bor- 
rowings from the Gospels. But how do they shift their 

26 


302 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


articles of belief, from year to year? At one time they 
think they should like a “Resurrection of the Dead, 
and a Future Judgment;” but anon they come to think 
not so well of these articles as once they did; or it has 
been demonstrated to them that any such persuasion 
involves the “supernatural,” and cannot be retained 
-unless they will choose to stand where they would be 
in hourly peril of becoming Christians. It is well for 
us that there is always within the pale of intelligence a 
large class of minds that, by fault of nature, want the 
analytic force which would enable them to ascertain 
the inevitable issue of the lines of thought they are 
pursuing. Without these minds an awful chasm would 
yawn between Belief and Disbelief; but these gentle 
spirits bridge it over. 

You well know that the endeavour to overthrow or 
to get rid of Christianity on the ground of historical 
criticism, has utterly failed. The historical problem is 
still unsolved on your side. You know, moreover, that, 
if certain positions are abandoned, which, if they are 
retained, we must in the end surrender ourselves to 
Christianity ; then the alternative, which is as sure as 
any conclusion in science, is a choice between Material 
Atheism, in its most grossly expressed form; or, Ideal- 
istic Atheism; and this latter, if it has any meaning 
at all, may be summed up in some such manner as 
this ;—‘‘ Whether there be any existence other and be- 
side the ‘Ego,’ Ido not know; or if there were any 
such second being, I could never come to know it. But 
then I do not know that I know so much as this:—nay, 
to speak the whole truth at once—I do not even know 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 303 


that I do not know this, because, for ought I know, I 
may know that I do not know it.” 

Putting out of view a proper religious regard for the 
individual men, I thoroughly exult in standing on one 
side as spectator of this rush of our “‘ Leading Minds” 
‘down this steep place’ into the gulf. The upshot of 
Abstract Speculation on the side of those who reject 
the Intuitive Principles of human reason, and of the 
moral constitution of man, has now fully shown itself 
to be a wordy nothing which, though it still clothes 
itself in sublime verbiage among our Teutonic neigh- 
bours, will never, in these lands of common sense, fail, 
after a little time, to be rejected with indignant con- 
tempt as naked nonsense. 


THE SECOND INTENTION OF CHRIST’S MISSION, AS AT- 
TESTED BY MIRACLES. 


Curist, the Saviour of the world, made no formal 
profession of His intention to do what He has actually 
done, and is now doing, for its benefit. He did not 
plainly say that He had come to civilize rude nations-- 
to humanize savages, to abrogate slavery, to abolish 
polygamy, to bring into disuse judicial torture, to rid 
cities of the sanguinary exhibitions of the amphitheatre, 
to break up caste, and to set men forward on the course 
of free and hopeful improvement, on terms of brother- 
hood :—Christ said little of these purposes, great as 
they are ; but now that we see what it is which His re- 
ligion does for nations, when it is allowed to take effect 
upon them in its own manner, we turn anew to the 
record of His sermons and parables, and there, without 
difficulty, we find the efficient principles of all these 
silent reforms, and can trace each of them separately 
to its source, in this or that word of power—precept, 
or instance. 

It is quite otherwise when the same PERSON comes 
to be regarded in His character as the Saviour, not of 
men, as occupants of seventy years, but of man as im- 
mortal; and so as the Redeemer of those who, to the 


world’s end, shall be willing to accept immortality at 
(3804) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 305 


His hands. On this ground there is no doubt or am- 
biguity as to the purpose to effect which He came into 
the world. He came to seek and to rescue those who, 
in every age and country, shall “hear His voice’”’—the 
voice of the “Good Shepherd,” and hearing it, shall 
set forward upon the path which He trod, and which 
He opened for them, and so shall enter with Him upon 
the bright fields of immortality. The Christian scheme, 
looked at on this side, wears an aspect of the most de- 
terminate simplicity. On ths side no mystery attaches 
to the language or professions of the Saviour; the mys- 
tery is that which shrouds the conditions of the rescue, 
and still more, cts limits. Saved or lost! who shall 
surmise what is the meaning of either of these words, 
the mere utterance of which, with thoughtfulness, stag- 
gers the reason, and which, when brought to take a 
bearing upon those who are now walking side by side 
upon the smooth path of domestic fondness, rends the 
heart, and quite bewilders the moral instincts. 

And yet, if we find ourselves entering upon a scene 
where thought and meditation fail to guide us, we soon 
find that there is no way of retreat, and that our only 
course is onward, following the beckoning of Him whose 
leading is ever toward the light. And now as the scene 
is shifted, so does the Person stand revealed in another 
manner. Let us pause for a moment, and well con- 
sider what it is that is before us. 

It is my steadfast conviction that Christianity will 
not henceforth maintain its ground, as related to the 
present intellectual condition of instructed communities, 
so long as “Christian apologists’’ (so called) take up a 


position upon the “ outworks,” or spend their efforts 
26* 


306 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


upon the well-meant but fruitless endeavour to put for- 
ward the ‘‘ Historic Evidences’’ apart from that PRIN- 
CIPAL TRUTH, which forms the substance of the Gospel. 
So long as this Principal Truth does not occupy its 
due position in the mind and faith of the writer, and so 
long as it is not boldly presented to the mind of ‘the 
reader, there is a consciousness, on both sides, of an 
interior incoherence in the system itself: there is a 
painful and perplexing feeling of incongruity, which 
sets these evidences a jarring, as well in a logical as 
in a moral sense, one against another. 

If this Principal Truth be a TruTH, then, to misap- 
prehend it—to hold it off, as if it might be accepted or 
rejected at our pleasure, while yet the historic evidence 
is admitted to be conclusive and entire—is an error 
fatal to the argument, logically, and of the worst ten- 
dency as to the reader’s mind in a religious sense. 

For my own part I could not attempt, and in fact 
should fail to have any motive sufficiently impulsive 
for attempting, to set forth the Christian’ evidences on 
any other ground than that of an amply expressed and 
unexceptive ORTHODOXY. The use of this term, which 
carries with it a clear and ascertained historic meaning, 
‘saves many circumlocutions; it excludes ambiguities, 
and it exempts a writer, who wishes to keep clear of 
what would be a theological or exegetical argument, 
from the necessity of giving expression, in his own 
terms, to his own individual faith. No further expla- 
nation need be asked for by the reader from a writer 
who ingenuously declares that he professes, as his Be- 
lief, the several articles of the Nicene Creed. 

Do we hesitate to commit ourselves to a Belief, grasp- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 307 


ing, as this Creed does, conceptions which the finite 
reason labours in vain to apprehend? Yet before we 
draw back, let us look to the alternative: let us inquire 
whether we will commend ourselves devoutly and joy- 
fully to a Bright Infinitude, or will wander forever 
among schemes of Philosophy, or systems of religious 
belief, to not ‘one of which, hitherto, has this same Rea- 
son, with all its efforts, succeeded in giving a tolerable 
degree of coherence or certainty. 

At this point I challenge those whose pursuits may 
have qualified them to accept such a challenge, to look 
back with me upon the field over which the human mind 
has been travelling these eighteen centuries. There are 
two roads under the eye in such a retrospect: namely, 
that of Abstract Thought, on the one hand, and that 
of Christian Belief, or Theological Science on the other. 
To the first of these I have just now adverted, and shall 
not repeat what I have said, otherwise than to express, 
in a varied form, a profound conviction—and it is a 
painful conclusion to come to—that, however abundant 
may be the means available for constructing a Theistic 
Doctrine, and however irresistibly conclusive the argu- 
ment may be on this ground, yet, if we rigidly deduct 
from it, as we ought, all aids and materials that are 
due, directly or indirectly, to the Hebrew and Chris- 
tian canonical books, we then fiad ourselves in an un- 
defended—an indefensible position as toward the very 
darkest of those surmises which take their rise from 
that spectacle of misery and disorder which the human 
family has everywhere, and has always, presented. On 
this road, has not the Terminus been reached long ago 
If it were required of us “to report progress’’ in the 


308 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


department of Abstract Philosophy, let me be told 
whether, as honest men, we could affirm that those who 
profess to shake off every restraint of theological bias 
and religious prejudice, have at length reached a scien- 
tific position, which is so solidly based, and which is so 
well defined, as that it commands the assent, and may 
boast the adherence of all well-constituted and disci- 
plined minds? If there be any such Philosophy which 
is now available as a resting-place for the human mind, 
it must surely be easy to name it. No such Philosophy 
can be named; and in default of it, or until it shall 
appear, nothing stands in front of us—on the road of 
Abstract Thought—but an abyss which has become 
much more terrible in prospect at this time than here- 
tofore it was, because the lately-developed depth of the 
human mind, and its enhanced sensitiveness, impel us, 
irresistibly, to people the dark void with ghastly forms. 
Psychological Science (or those dim conjectures that 
are its precursors) is robbing us of the fond illusion that 
‘“‘Death is an eternal sleep.’’ Whether or not the 
Christian immortality is before us, there zs an after 
stage for man; and who shall say what may be its con- 
ditions? Why may they not be such as the analogy 
of things around us would suggest ? 

The intuitions of human nature impel us to seek re- 
lief from these distracting speculations in a theology of 
some sort, and which, if only because it is more distinct, 
shall be less appalling than are the fathomless surmises 
of a Pantheistic or Atheistic hypothesis. 

We pass over then to the road of Christian Theology, 
or that liné of dogmatic belief which is professedly 
derived from the canonical books. But among these 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 309 


beliefs, such as they stand before us on the pages of 
Church history, which is it that we shall choose ? 

I think it will be granted that the tenour of religious 
history—looking now to the speculative (not the eccle- 
siastical) side—is of this sort:—There has been going 
on, throughout these eighteen centuries, an ever-renewed 
endeavour, on the part (no doubt) of earnestly purposed 
minds, to make good a position somewhere short of tha. 
Belief to which the Nicene Creed gives a formal expres- 
sion. It could not have-happened otherwise than that 
such endeavours should be perseveringly made, and that 
the failure of one of them should suggest and prompt 
to the making of another. ‘The restless curiosity of 
the human mind, its impatience of restraint, and the 
diverse structure of individual minds, necessitate these 
perennial enterprises, the purpose of all of which is to 
win a resting-place for thought where the things it con- 
verses with are measurable, apprehensible, and subject 
to its control. The history of these fruitless enter- 
prises, if it could be candidly written—if it could be 
written otherwise than as under the polemic title, “A 
History of Heresies, and of Heretics,” would supply 
the best sort of corroborative evidence in support of 
Orthodoxy ; inasmuch as they would all indicate their 
rise in the same error of attempting to generalize 
where the object is unique, and can have no parallel. 

But now, in looking back upon this road—a battle- 
field as it is—let us ask which of these heresies (for 
convenience Iso call them) can now be spoken of 
as a successful solution of the difficulties it professes 
to deal with? which of them, from the apostolic age 
to this, is it that has been accepted by Bible-reading 


310 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


communities as proven? which of them is it that, by 
fair means of interpretation, has put itself in harmony 
with the Text of the apostolic writings? If I could 
divest myself, at this moment, of every residue of reli- 
gious solicitude, and could, in that mood of indifference, 
sit down to review the heretical series, I should be com- 
pelled to grant, concerning each of them in its turn, 
that its elements are incoherent, that its argumentative 
style is tortuous and sophistical, that its method of 
biblical interpretation is a system of shifts, that in sur- 
rendering oneself to it, as a scheme one might accept 
and rest in, one is driven to wish that it could fairly 
divorce itself, either from its philosophy on the one side, 
or from its professed regard to Scriptural authority on 
the other ; for as a philosophy it is burdened with the 
Bibie; and as a biblical theology it is spoiled by its 
philosophy. 

Not one of those schemes of biblical belief which, 
in the lapse of time, has disputed the ground with the 
Nicene faith, recommends itself by that charm of In- 
terior Congruity which this latter so conspicuously pos- 
sesses. It is this alone that is an Entire Belief, and 
concerning which, it may be affirmed that its elements— 
abstract, moral, and spiritual, are in unison. In this 
Belief there is proportion, and symmetry, and that 
grandeur and simplicity which is the inimitable charac- 
teristic of a Great Truth in any department.” With 
this Belief at my heart, the logical ground of the his- 
toric evidences is firm to the foot: without it, while at- 
tempting to give coherence to the body of proof, I tread 
a shifting sand-bank. Without it, the supernatural 
narratives of the Gospels stand out as unsustained, and 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. one 


as disproportioned to the doctrine; and I am fain to 
rid myself of them, if possible; with it, the miracles 
of Christ’s public life take their places of fitness as 
the graceful accompaniments of the ministry of Him 
who “dwelt among us” for effecting a purpose far 
greater than all miracles, and more arduous than the 
uttering the creative fiat. 

Although I can grasp no one element of my Creed, 
either meditatively or scientifically, for each is a pro- 
perty of the Infinite, yet in the meditative contem- 
_plation of it, I am at rest; for the object before me 
contradicts no intuition of my moral nature. The con- 
tour is that of Majesty—the Person meets and gives 
contentment to the highest conceptions I can form, 
both of perfect humanity, and of Divine benignity 
and wisdom. 

Then, as this Catholic Belief is entire in itself, and 
as it fully realizes whatever is true in human nature, 
and whatever we may conceive of as proper to the 
Divine nature, so does it interpret itself into the lan- 
guage of my own spiritual life with a happy and a 
health-giving facility. Those emotions which it finds 
in me dormant, and which it wakes up in me, I cannot 
but yield myself to, and gladly obey, when once they 
are thus quickened. 

In an hour of perplexity and dismay—such as are 
incident to every human spirit that is not lost in sen- 
sualities, or occupied with sordid aims—if in such an 
hour, when the atmosphere of hopeless woe is that in 
which one can breathe the freest—if at such a time I 
ask, and ask it as if no bright answer could be returned 
to such a question, what that eternal life might be of 


312 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


which I, such as I am, could be the recipient, and 
which it would be possible for me to enjoy, or even to 
wish for—I find my answer in my Creed. This life 
of the soul—the life eternal, is not what I am either 
fit for, or could think of with comfort; but it is such 
as it is fitting for Hrm to bestow who is what my Creed 
declares Him to be. If in seasons of saddened thought, 
amid inveterate hesitations and perplexities and mis- 
givings, I take up the several rudiments of my now 
actual condition, moral and spiritual—if I know my- 
self to be, as indeed I am, disordered, broken, powerless, 
faulty and utterly wanting in any quality or talent out 
of which I might perchance work the price of my re- 
demption from this state, or might perchance draw 
toward me the eye of Infinite Compassion—if I feel 
and know such things as these, and if, while so feeling, 
I form to myself some notion of immortality, even of 
an endless consciousness, with all the odds of infinity 
against me, and thus ill provided for ;—thus thinking 
in a way which I am forced to admit is according to 
a true estimate of myself, then do I shrink back from 
a boundless prospect of golden bliss, and ask rather 
that there may be assigned to me, as heaven’s best 
boon, the dimmest corner of the universe, wherein to 
lie forgotten, and wherein to while away the cycles of 
an obscure eternity. 

Thus dismayed, thus uncomforted, thus tempted to 
envy the natures around me that are not immortal, if 
then, by help given me from above, I look upward, 
if I look Sun-ward, if I turn to my Belief, and accept 
it such as it appears—a Truth, heaven-descended, then 
the darkness of my soul is dispelled by that Light. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 313 


That immortality which, when regarded from a point 
of view proper to myself,. is inconceivable, or, if con- 
ceivable, is undesirable, comes now to be contemplated 
in its own light—it is life-endless in Him, and His royal 
gift, who is the Light of Light, and the life of immor- 
tality ;—it is the gift of Him in whom the perfections 
of the finite, and the attributes of the Infinite are so 
blended that a boundless and a bright hope comes to 
its rest upon those unchangeable attributes, brought 
within our reach by those human perfections. 


This eternal life, which is offered to me in the 
Gospel—the Gospel being interpreted as it is in my 
Creed, and therefore not to be thought of as if it were 
a superfluous announcement of known moralities, but 
as a revelation of Truths quite unattainable by reason 
—is of universal aptitude, in relation to human nature 
in its actual condition ; and it must be so thought of 
even although in fact it were but one in millions that 
should accept it. Christianity is not a religion for the 
religious, but a religion for man. I do not accept it 
because my temperament so disposes me, and because 
it meets my individual mood of mind, or my tastes. 
I accept it as it is suited to that moral condition in 
respect of which there is no difference of importance 
between me and the man I may next encounter on 
my path. 

There is a constant tendency in minds of a certain 
order—which delight in first-glance generalizations— 
to assume the contrary of what I here affirm, and to 
think themselves very wise in professing the shallow 
hypothesis that the Christian, if he be not a hypocrite, 

27 


314 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


if he be a sincere and devout man, is such by individ- 
ual organization—by temperament. It is not so: 
those who thus think want discrimination; and they 
want also an acquaintance with facts of this class. 
‘‘ Philosophers’’ who so speak are—smart spirits it may 
be, but such as show that they have little sympathy 
with that which is profound in human nature; and as 
to their own souls, there is not depth enough in them 
for any affection that roots itself below the surface. 

In affirming this in the most categorical manner, I 
shall not be contradicted by those whose large ex- 
perience among “the religious,” through a long course 
of ministerial labour, qualifies them to give evidence 
on such a question. Grant it that, if you draw, 
alphabetically, from out of a religious community, a 
hundred persons whose habits are devotional, and 
whose course of life consists with their profession, 
this selection will include those whom one might in a 
sense call the ‘devout born:” by this phrase I intend 
to designate persons whose temperament, intellectual 
and emotional, whose sensibilities, and whose tastes, 
are all of the kind that favours the happiest develope- 
ment of the religious affections. There may be four 
or five such in any hundred; rarely so many as ten 
or twenty. But within the limits of the same hundred 
there will be found (and yet they shall be unfeignedly 
religious persons) more than a ten or twenty whose 
piety has had no aid whatever from what it has found 
in them—has met with nothing congenial in the tone 
of the sentiments, in the imaginative faculty, or in the 
rational. Yes, have we not seen and well known some 
of this order, and been near enough to them, for a 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. O15 


length of time, to look into their common-made souls— 
to see through their honest but homely hearts? Have 
we not seen, admired, and loved such, and been cor- 
dially understood with them, and have wished to be 
like them—who, if you could abstract from them all 
that a Christian belief and a Christian piety has done 
for them, in giving them intelligence, in giving them 
taste, and a sense of propriety, in shedding a healthy 
warmth through the social affections—yes, and in quick- 
ening within them a consciousness of the sublime and 
the beautiful—such that, if stripped of the heavenly 
enrichment they have received, they would, in most of 
these aspects, have been as the dead, the deaf, the 
blind, the idiotic; so marked were they by nature with 
the not-to-be-mistaken stamp of inane mediocrity, that 
an hour in their society would have been an intoler- 
able weariness. But they have become what now they 
are, because the ‘“ eternal life’ has made its commence- 
ment in their hearts; and because, in daily and 
hourly earnest exercises of the soul, they hold com- 
munion with Him who is—what my Creed declares 
Him to be. 

Those whom the Saviour Christ—the Good Shep- 
herd, gathers about Him from out of each generation 
of men, as it passes forward in time, and who, at no 
time, are more than a “little flock,” are so chosen as 
if designedly in contravention of any rule of obvious 
or natural causation; and so as at once to illustrate 
the sovereignty of the choice—to display the omnipo- 
tence that gives effect to it, and to demonstrate a deep 
truth—namely—the universal applicability of this sal- 
vation to human nature. Christ’s followers are in- 


316 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


deed exceptional, if we reckon them by arithmetic ; 
but they are not exceptional, psychologically. 

Christ’s true followers, in every age, are, we say, 
not a class of persons who might be pointed out before 
they become such: they are not believers of the Gos- 
pel by idiosyneracy; but they are so because they 
have come to know the truth of their condition, as 
toward God, which is the condition of all men alike— 
whether they know it or not. Need it be shown that 
they are not the class of Mystics? Mysticism is the 
religion of abstraction; but Christianity is religion in 
the concrete: the two mental conditions are antago- 
nistic. Mysticism is intellectual voluptuousness, and 
must therefore be abhorrent to a system, the first 
precept of which forbids self-seeking, and every se- 
clusive personal indulgence. Or need it be shown 
that Christ’s own followers are not the few of any 
ecclesiastical enclosure, any more than they are the 
sturdy adherents and warm defenders of sectarian 
doctrines. 

Nothing so catholic as is that spiritual life into the 
composition of which there enters these rudiments— 
a consciousness of guilt and helplessness, for one part, 
and a correllative intuition of grace and help in God, 
for the other part. And if there be these rudiments, 
the Giver of so much grace will doubtless give more in 
due season. 

How comforting is it to meet, on one’s path, with 
one whose spiritual life is just rudimental in this sense ; 
for if there be one such, there may be thousands whose 
names appear on no muster-roll of the visible Church. 
It is not true that doctrine is of little account in the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 317 


spiritual life; but it is true that souls may live—live 
on till they wake up in immortality, with less of doc- 
trine worded in a creed than human language could 
know how to attenuate. 

Christ’s true disciple is one who—at any moment— 
at a call—at a beckon, will rise from the couch and 
table of worldly enjoyment, and follow him through 
whatever rugged way it is that his Guide is going. In 
any company of persons who have entered their names 
in ecclesiastical lists—let the word—the whisper be 
heard—‘‘ The Master is come and calleth for thee,” 
and those among them for whom the summons ig in- 
tended—rise, at the instant—rise, trembling perhaps 
and doubting, but yet they do rise, and they go 
‘“‘whithersoever HE goeth.” 

That such there are, and more than a very few, in 
each following generation, is a fact forcing itself upon 
the convictions of every thoughtful and ingenuous 
reader of the history of Christianity ;—forcing itself 
upon the convictions of every thoughtful and ingenuous 
observer of Christian communities as they now are. 

These facts, which I assume to be patent and un- 
questionable, will receive a theological interpretation 
such as may best accord with the doctrinal system 
which we individually adhere to, and which we allow 
to overrule, or to dispose of all facts, in its own man- 
ner. Such an interpretation may be nipped in between 
imaginary logical necessities; or it may be ample, 
ingenuous, unencumbered. Yet either way, not an 
iota is added to, or is taken away from the simple 
reality with which we have to do—namely that Christ’s 
true followers are, as He said they should be, a few 

ata 


318 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


from among those whom visible Christianity embraces, 
and upon whom it confers temporal blessings. 

This, reality, stripped of what is incidental to a 
Christian profession, and of what is merely conven- 
tional also, and of what may be ambiguous, reduces it- 
self to an elementary moral and religious state of mind, 
which is variously described by the apostolic writers, 
but yet always so as to embrace the ruling idea of an 
intimate conscious relationship between the human 
spirit and the Divine Nature, and as this Divine Na- 
ture is brought within the range of human conceptions 
and of human emotions in the Person of Christ. It is 
the duty of every one who becomes alive to his welfare 
in the future life, to ascertain for himself, alone, the 
fact of this relationship, as subsisting or not. As to 
others—and as to all around him who take to them- 
selves the Christian name, it is the part of charity to 
accept every such profession as valid and genuine 
which does not receive a glaring contradiction in the 
life and temper of the individual. 

As to the limits and the conditions of this “‘ Charity 
that believeth all things,’’ we have nothing here to do 
with them. I am now thinking of the Christian scheme 
as the cause and the source of spiritual life to the in- 
dividual human spirit. Now if a hundred such in- 
stances could be laid open, it would, I think, be found 
that, for one that believes the Gospel on grounds of 
historical evidence, or believes it because it has been 
logically proved to be true, ninety-nine accept it, with 
a perfect assurance, on the strength of that sense of 
congruity which itself brings home, both to the heart 
and the reason, whenever it is apprehended by both 


os 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 319 


in conjunction. But it is manifest that this species 
of intuitive conviction is not of a sort that can be 
brought within the range of language, for the purpose 
of conveying it, verbally, from one mind to another. 
This certitude can no more be defined or described, 
than can any primary element of our consciousness be 
so treated. 

Least of all can that one which may be called the 
very element among the elements of the divine -life be 
verbally set forth, or be brought to submit itself to the 
process of developement in a string of propositions. 
This rudiment of the spiritual life is a consciousness of 
the ABSOLUTELY GOOD, more or less clear, and which, 
to the human spirit, in its now actual condition, in- 
volves a correlative consciousness—painful and hum- 
bling, of moral disorder. How can such an awakening 
as this be passed through without anguish—without 
some intensity of suffering? Any such agony of the 
soul, endured at the moment of the dispersion of the 
gay dreams of self-love, must indeed vary, as to its in- 
tensity, very greatly, according to the structure of the 
individual mind, and according also to its history, and 
to its experiences; yet may we surely take this as an 
axiom—That where there has been no agony in the 
moral nature, there is no spiritual birth. 

But whence comes this sense of congruity which I 
have once and again spoken of, and which brings with 
it a ready assent to the FIRST TRUTH of the Christian 
scheme—the ineffable union of the Divine and human 
nature inthe Person of Christ? Certainly I shall not 
here attempt to spread out in a paragraph, or to put 
into a string of sentences, that which, as it so soon 


320 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


transcends the meditative faculty to grasp it, so much 
sooner baffles a writer’s faculty of embodying his 
thoughts in forms of speech. Yet if an explanation be 
sought for of the fact that, with very rare exceptions, 
Christian people, whose depth and seriousness of feel- 
ing indicates itself in an unambiguous manner, do cor- 
-dially accept the articles of an Orthodox Creed, the 
explanation is discoverable at this rudimental point. 
The leading article in that Creed meets the awakened 
and wounded human spirit, and so calms the perturba- 
tions of the soul—it go satisfies its alarms, and so 
brings it to its resting-place, as that the textual evi- 
dence, when adduced in detail, is listened to with com- 


fort, and is assented to with a spontaneous confidence.: 


Let it be argued, as it easily may—very learnedly— 
on grounds metaphysical, and on grounds ethical, that 
the Christian doctrine of Proprrrarton for sin (stated 
without reserve) is ‘“absurd’—and that it is “* jmpos- 
sible’’—and that it is “immoral”’—and that it is every- 
thing that ought to be reprobated, and to be met with 
an indignant rejection ;—let all such things be said, 
and they will be said to the world’s end—it will to the 
world’s end also be true that each human spirit, when 
awakened toward God, as to His moral attributes, finds 
rest in that same doctrine of the vicarious sufferings 
of the Divine Person, and finds no rest until jt is there 
found. 

I have just now affirmed that not one of those ear- 
nest endeavours which have been made in the course of 
centuries to establish a doctrine of lower import than 
the Nicene, has had any permanent success; and the 
ostensible reason of this failure, in each instance, may 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 321 


be found in its want of accordance with the canonical 
standard. But the more occult meaning of these suc- 
cessive shipwreckings of heretical enterprises is to be 
sought for among those laws of the human mind which 
forbid its resting short of an intimate sense of con- 
gruity among the principles that are offered to its ac- 
ceptance. The promulgators of such schemes, them- 
selves, find no repose in them; for they are morally 
incoherent. Souls alive toward God can only pine and 
languish, and look from side to side, until they find 
Him, as the object of their trust, whom they thence- 
forward worship as ‘‘ God their Saviour.” Do you ask 
me to bring forward irresistible proof that Christianity 
is from Heaven? I can do this to such an extent as 
that you will fail, by any fair means, to overthrow my 
argument. But there isa shorter course. Come with 
me now into the presence of the Infinite Rectitude and 
Purity :—when there, renounce not that true dignity 
of human nature in virtue of which you are capable of 
such an introduction ; and which makes you rightfully 
amenable to this bar; while standing confronted with 
Kternal and Inexorable Justice—learn what you are, 
and frankly acknowledge what is simply true; and it 
is then that argumentation will seem to you a superflu- 
ous labour, and that the “historic evidences” will be 
superseded by the powerful workings of the soul upon 
its own troubled consciousness. 

In every instance in which Christianity comes to be 
assented to and accepted on this ground—the ground 
of its meeting the requirements, and assuaging the 
anguish of a quickened spiritual consciousness, then the 
miracles of the Evangelic history at once shift their 


322 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


position, as toward the reasoning faculty. Heretofore 
they were thought of as so many proofs (if real) of 
Christ’s mission, as a teacher sent from God; and the 
ohe question, if any question at all were asked, was 
this—‘‘ Can we be swre that the record is not falla- 
cious?’ But from the moment when the human spirit 
has coalesced with the. Principal Truth of the Christian 
system, then this series of miracles takes its subordi- 
nate place, as alongside of the course of the Divine 
Deliverer while he trod the earth. How can we ima- 
gine otherwise than that, at any moment while on his 
way toward the spot where he was to expiate the sins 
of the human family, he should show his command of 
nature, and of life, and should do it with a freedom 
and a copiousness becoming those attributes that were 
shrouded in his Person? 

It was undoubtedly under this aspect, that the writers 
of the canonical Epistles were accustomed to think of 
the supernatural adjuncts of the Religion which they 
taught. ‘T'o these attestations of their ministry as from 
God, they appealed on special occasions only ; but then 
it was in a manner which forbids the attempt to dis- 
lodge them from their place in the system, or to treat 
them as the inexplicable illusions of weak minds. Yet 
while to these facts they make none but incidental and 
infrequent references, they were earnestly intent, first, 
upon the diffusion of the Gospel Message, and then 
upon its influence in governing the life and temper of 
those who received it. No moment of their precious 
time do they consume in the endeavour to show that 
Christ’s miracles, and that their own, were real ;—no 
solicitude do they betray on that ground. What they 


] 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 323 


feared was, on the one hand, lest men should reject 
this Gospel; or, on the other, lest, professedly accept- 
ing it, they should in conduct and temper deny it. 

To the right-minded Christian of this present time 
the Evangelic miracles are not the props of a tottering 
belief; but they are the food of delicious meditation. 
He peruses so often, and with unsatiated pleasure, these 
narratives, not that he may, by these means, repair 
the dilapidations which his faith sustains in the open 
world; but that, by their aid, he may bring, daily, 
within the range of his conceptions, the conditions of 
that future world wherein the distinction between the 
natural and the supernatural—arbitrary as it is, shall 
have vanished, and where a perpetual nearness to Om- 
nipotenee shall kindle and shall keep alive the feeling 
that all things natural are always in truth supernatural. 
There can be no miracles in a world where the unclouded 
blaze of Kternal Power fills all space, and is visibly in 
act every moment. The difference between the natural 
and the supernatural is relative, not absolute—it is not 
essential. We so account of events of this kind accord- 
ing to the position in which at any moment we happen 
to stand toward them. Grant meso much as this, that 
the miracles recorded in the Gospels—the feeding the 
multitudes—the healing the sick—the giving sight to 
the blind—the raising the dead, were looked at, not 
only by mortal, but by immortal eyes ;—that while the 
rude multitude pressed around Jesus of Nazareth, and 
were filled with wonder, and said ‘we have seen strange 
things to-day’’—there was a throng supernal, looking 
on also. But to these the very same acts of benign 
omnipotence wore the tranquil aspect of familiar ex- 


324 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


perience: with them wonder can have no place, for it 
is embraced and absorbed in adoration. These mira- 
cles—so we on earth must call them, and which we are 
accustomed to speak of as inroads upon the course of 
nature, are, if truly considered, so many fragmentary 
instances of the Eternal Order of an upper world. 

It is often alleged that the miracles (even granting 
them to have been real) of a remote age can be of no 
avail to us, at this time, and especially in this our ad- 
vanced condition as to intellectual culture. Assuredly 
they are of no avail, and can be of none, to those who 
regard Christianity as an inexplicable anomaly, attach- 
ing to the history of that anomalous race—the descend- 
ants of Abraham. 

Let us take the centre miracle of the Christian sys- 
tem—the Resurrection of Christ, and see what is its 
bearing upon the mind and heart—upon the intellectual 
and religious well-being of one who accepts the Gospel 
as the groundwork of his spiritual life—as the reason 
of every fear, and of every hope, which he allows to 
sway his conduct. 

The Resurrection of Christ is the very life of that 
inner life—of that initial immortality which is bestowed 
upon those who, in every age, “‘hear His voice’ and 
“follow Him.” These hear Him say, “Because I 
live, ye shall live also.” ‘I am the resurrection and 
the life.” “If any man hear my voice, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live.” 

Now we may follow that process which takes place 
in the instance of one with whom the reasoning faculty 
is sound, and has received a due culture—who is in- 
formed in all matters of religious history and criticism ; 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. S25 


and we suppose that his moral history and present con- 
dition are not such as to breed an instinctive wish to 
rid himself of his belief: on the contrary, his best feel- 
ings impel him to wish that he may find indubitable 
warrant for it. Grant it, that this Christian persua- 
sion has not been acquired in a strictly logical order; 
for he has come into the possession of it by education— 
by devotional habitudes, and by the involuntary intui- 
tion of his moral nature. But at a certain moment in 
his course he makes a pause, and in that mood of firm 
resolve which is characteristic of a strong intellect and 
a strong will, he determines to convince himself that 
his faith is solidly based upon what should be its pro- 
per evidence ;—or if he cannot do this—he is prepared 
boldly to renounce it. 

For the sake of convenience, and to avoid circumlo- 
cutions, I throw this descriptive analysis of the process 
of belief into the form of a personal narrative. Thus 
resolved then, as I have said, I set out on my road, 
taking with me this unquestionable preliminary— 
namely—That, if a religious persuasion is to come into 
its place among those principles of action which, on 
any supposition, must govern the active and moral life, 
if it is to sway me, notwithstanding many impulses 
and motives which might prevail with me in a contrary 
direction—if my religion (be it what it may) is to work 
in and along with the established mechanism of the 
world of mind—such as I find it to be, if so, then the 
confidence I may feel in its truth must, of necessity, 
rest upon such ground as that an opposite belief, or an 
absolute rejection of it, may yet be possible. If I am 
to become a religious man, in the Christian sense, then 


28 


326 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


it must be at least conceivable that I might become an 
irrcligious man, in that same sense. If a religious be- 
lief is with me to be the same thing as are my moral 
beliefs; if it is to act as an influence countervailing 
other influences, then it must be possible for me to dis- 
believe. There could not be a Christian, in a world 
constituted as this is, if there were not always room for 
a man to be an Infidel. 

Christianity and Abstract Theism occupy precisely 
the same ground, considered under this aspect. If in 
this world of discipline—this world of educational an- 
tagonism—this world of products wrought out of con- 
trarieties—if I am to possess a faith in God, as my 
Creator, Judge, and Father, this faith must be the cor- 
relate of its logical opposite—Atheism. The Theist, in 
this present world, will never cease to find himself face 
to face with the Atheist. Wherein then consists the 
blameworthiness of the Atheist ? it is this—knowing— 
and he cannot be ignorant of a truth so obvious—that 
the system of motives to which he conforms himself 
every day in the open world, always leaves room for 
an exception or an evasion, he snatches at that excep- 
tion, and he uses that evasion when the Theistic evi- 
dence presents itself before him; but he does not do so 
in any other instance, unless he be fool or knave. The 
virtuous man is one who manfully holds to the rule, 
and spurns the exception, and who scorns to escape by 
the evasion: he embraces the principle, and he casts 
from him the sophism; he adheres to universal intui- 
tions; he listens not to the paradox. 

This premised, I go to work at the beginning of the 
Christian evidences, and ask, as it concerns my own 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 827 


prospect of immortality, whether those things are sure, 
that are taught and affirmed in the Apostolic writings. 
It may be that I should have preferred some other me- 
dium of evidence, touching a point of such incalculable 
moment. ut whether I choose it or not, I find my- 
self handed over to this peculiar species of proof. Yet 
in looking into it—on the supposition that God, the 
Father of my spirit, challenges me to accept it, I find 
that, as to its completeness, in cts kind, and as to its 
conclusiveness, the body of historical and critical evi- 
dence very far surpasses any other instance with which 
it ought to be brought into comparison. That this is 
the fact has become manifest at this present moment, 
inasmuch as the strenuous endeavours of accomplished 
men, inflamed with the ambition to overthrow Christi- 
anity, have confessedly broken down. After reading 
what has been written with this view, I find that I can 
in no way disengage myself from this evidence, except 
by forcibly dismissing the subject from my thoughts. 
But I go on to sift this evidence, at intervals, and I 
do so with all possible care, and in different moods of 
mind, and I come ever and again to the same result. 
I read the recent antichristian literature, and in doing 
so candour is sorely tried if I persist in supposing that 
educated men are honest when they put forth what is 
so frivolous, so captious, and so nugatory, as that which 
they advance in behalf of their disbelief. I converse 
with those who profess this disbelief, and instead of 
rigid argumentation—serious in its tone, and ingenu- 
ous—I am met by a style of reasoning which is unan- 
swerable only because it is vague, misty, evasive and 
sentimental. 


828 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


It is enough :—lI see that before I can stand clear 
of Christianity, I must let go my hold of those ele- 
mentary convictions which rule my every-day life. To 
me, Disbelief must act as a solvent of all logical cohe- 
rence, and must discharge from my mind every persua- 
sion which binds me to the social system now, as well 
as those which connect me with immortality. 

I return then with assurance to my Belief, and I 
surrender myself without fear to that train of medita- 
tion which attends, and surrounds, its centre fact—the 
resurrection of Christ. 

At this point the Supernatural, in an instance the 
most signal and the freest from ambiguity, takes a 
bearing upon my individual state of mind, and touches 
my fears, my hopes, and my conscience, and gives a 
turn to the emotions, excites the imagination, and occu- 
pies the reason. That eu Christ “suffered and died, 
and that He rose again,” is a fact in yielding myself 
cordially to the belief of which I pass forward from one 
condition of existence, and come into another ; and this 
change is so extensive in its consequences, that nothing 
affecting my happiness can remain unaffected by it. 
That remote event with which I stand connected through 
the medium of historic and eritical evidence, concerns 
me far more intimately than could any event of to-day 
which should entirely change my individual or social 
position. 

What those changes are, severally, of which a belief 
in Christ’s resurrection is the efficient cause, I shall not 
here attempt to specify. I will speak only of two of 
them; and of these, not in the style of a digested and 
consecutive discourse, but discursively. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 329 


In the first place then, an unhesitating belief of the 
resurrection of Christ—if I allow the meditative faculty 
to dwell upon it—leads me forth from a region of in- 
terminable surmises that are comfortless, appalling, or 
worse ; and it brings me upon a ground, that is firm to 
the foot, and where those objects that are already fami- 
liar to me, stand out distinctly, and are sharply de- 
fined ; and they show themselves, not in the glimmer or 
in the blaze of a vague phosphorescence, but in the 
every-day sober sunlight of this present world. If I 
carry myself back, as I may easily do, to that Garden 
under the walls of Jerusalem wherein was a sepulchre, 
or enter an upper chamber, within the city, or go on to 
a house a sabbath-day’s journey south of it; or travel 
so far as to the shore of the lake of Galilee; if I go 
thither taking with me no haze of exaggeration, I there 
find Him who is at once the Representative of the 
human family, and its Sponsor; and I find Him such 
after the suffering of death, as He was before it—save 
his recent scars. The immortality, therefore, which is 
held before me in the Christian scheme, is no such 
thing as a nucleus of conscious mist, floating about in 
a golden fog, amid millions of the same purposeless, 
limbless sparks. It is an immortality of organized 
material energies ;—it is the same welded mind-and- 
matter human nature—fitted for service—apt to labour, 
and capable of all those experiences, and furnished for 
all those enterprises, and armed for those endurances 
which, seeing that they are thus provided for, and are, 
as one may say, thus foreshown in the Christian resur- 
rection, put before me a rational solution—hypothetic 
indeed, and yet not illusory—of those now imminent 

28* 


330 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


trials, of those hard experiences, of those frustrated la- 
bours, and of those fiery sufferings, the passing through 
which so much perplexes and disheartens me now; but 
which at once find their reason when I see them in 
their intention, as the needed schooling for an immor- 
tality in the endless fortunes of which this mind-and- 
matter structure shall have room to show what things 
it can do and bear, and what enterprises of love it shall 
devise, and shall bring to a happy consummation, it 
may be, cycles of centuries hence. 

‘The Lord is risen indeed!” said those simple souls, 
one to another, in that dim morning hour—which was 
the morning of a Day Eternal to human nature; and 
He so rises as to throw forward upon the path of this 
human nature, to the remotest range of an endless ex- 
istence, a steady light of reality. 

Over against this reasonable and conceivable Curis- 
TIAN IpEA of the future life, as it is set before me in 
the instance of the Resurrection of Christ, I will put 
the dreamy Elysium of classical antiquity—lI will put 
the sensualisms of the oriental beliefs—I will put the 
wearisome and vapid inanities of modern poetical or 
philosophical surmises: yes, and over against this 
genuine belief I must put those more consistent suppo- 
sitions which, at this present time, are presenting 
themselves, in a whisper, as probable, if we are to 
follow the guidance of psychological speculation, and 
if we are looking to such a future existence as the 
analogy of things around us might suggest. As com- 
pared with all such anticipations—more or less con- 
sonant as they may severally be with facts known to 
us—I find that my Christian Belief is more consistent 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 3831 


than any one of them, is more realizable—is more 
cheering, is more animating, and that is of a tendency 
(when rightly considered) the most healthful, as to 
the moral and the intellectual faculties. 

And “why should it be thought a thing incredible 
that God should raise the dead?” Every pretext for 
thinking it so, on scientific grounds, has been snatched 
from us by the modern Geology. But that man, such 
as he is—his intellect and his moral nature—should 
cease to exist at death, is indeed an incredible suppo- 
sition; and yet, if we feel that it is his destiny to live 
anew, then, among all the beliefs to which the instincts 
of our nature have given birth, whether in ancient or 
in modern times, the Christian belief of the resurrec- 
tion of the body, by which we must mean—the recon- 
struction of human nature entire—mind and matter— 
body and soul, is incomparably the easiest to conceive 
of; as it is also the best recommended by analogies; 
and, I will boldly say, it is the belief to which a genu- 
ine philosophy would instantly give the preference, if, 
among the many hypotheses of a future stage of hu- 
man existence which have been imagined as probable, 
it must make a choice. 

Yet it is on no such ground of its abstract credi- 
bility, that this fundamental fact of the Christian life 
is accepted by those in whom that life has indeed had 
its commencement. As to those of them who are in- 
formed and intelligent, they can at all times fall back 
upon that body of evidence which secures them against 
disbelief. But going far beyond any such merely in- 
tellectual persuasion, Christ’s true disciples have a 
sense of the import of His resurrection which renders 


Soe THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


them—except as towards others, indifferent to logical 
methods of proof. Ask them for a reason of their 
faith, and they can well meet the challenge; but hay- 
ing done so, they retire to a ground of consciousness 
concerning which no distinct conveyance can be 
made from mind to mind, through the medium of 
language. Verbal propositions do not represent those 
intuitions within the circle of which this conviction 
takes place. 

In vain you say that the supernatural, even if you 
were to grant it to be real, is a remote fact which 
can have no bearing upon our individual feelings at 
this time. You will not bring me to think so while 
{ believe that Christ’s resurrection, apart from the 
meaning which it carries as to the futurity of all men, 
is the proof—as it is the consequence, of the efficacy 
of His vicarious death in securing for us, individually, 
the remission of sins, and the blessedness of that 
future life. 

It is at this point that we touch the real matter in 
debate among the various theological controversies of 
the present time. If this point be determined, then 
the several articles of religious belief must follow, in 
their order, with little question. But while this is 
undetermined, no argumentation avails to bring such 
controversies to a conclusion. __ 

What interpretation is it which we allow ourselves 
to put upon the admitted’ fact of the disordered con- 
dition of human nature? Is wrong right—seen under 
another aspect, or from a loftier point of view? Are 
crimes misfortunes? Is sin a mistake? The answer 
we give to questions of this kind—and they may be 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 333 


indefinitely varied—involves the whole argument con- 
cerning the truth of the Christian system. The Chris- 
tian, leaving the Atheist, the Pantheist, the antichris- 
tian Theist, and the would-be Christian philosophist, to 
make up a reply among themselves—and there is no 
substantial difference among them—has come to his 
own conclusion in this matter. He perfectly under- 
stands, what it might have been supposed all must 
understand—that, to confer with, and to treat man as 
a machine, or as a brute, or to condole with him as 
“unlucky,” but not culpable, is to vilify and degrade 
him still more, and to consign him to a series of hope- 
less descents, until, in fact, he has become a brute, 
and might well wish himself a machine. The Chris- 
tian feels that, cost what it may to the individual, the 
true method of treatment with human nature—the 
hopeful course, and that which indeed lifts him up, 
and does him honour, is to assume that he is in fact 
amenable to the severest law, and should measure him- 
self by the highest standard of purity, rectitude, and 
goodness, which his faculties, intellectual and moral, 
enable him to conceive of, or to comprehend. In 
truth, we need no other evidence in support of the 
principle that man is actually amenable to such a law, 
than this—That when it is placed before him, he in- 
voluntarily recognizes it as abstractedly good. 

The spiritual life then, or the first stage of the life 
eternal, is a recognition of the immutable Law of 
purity, rectitude, and love, not merely as abstractedly 
good, but as good to be applied to man, how disastrous 
soever may be the consequences of that application to 
him in his now actual condition. Better were it for 


334 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


him to be condemned by such a law, than to find him- 
self villanously discharged from court on the ground 
that his nature does not admit of the application of a 
rule so high. Better that he should be condemned as 
guilty, than vilified as pitiable. Better for man to en- 
dure his doom among beings who have fallen from 
heaven, than that he should take his place as the 
‘most unfortunate’ of the mammalia. 

It is manifest that when the individual man has 
reached this point, and has unfeignedly given in his 
adherence to a principle of government to which he is 
obnoxious,. the depth and intensity of the motions that 
thence take their rise will bear proportion, much rather 
to the culture, the refinement, and the sensitiveness 
of his moral constitution, than to the extent or enor- 
mity of his personal transgressions. So it is (as 
must seem likely) that those whose course of life has 
been—in the world’s eye, blameless, and whose do- 
mestic phase is altogether lovely, often far exceed 
the ostensibly guilty in those feelings of anguish and 
abasement which attend their entrance upon the Chris- 
tian life. Shall we say that such feelings—such ago- 
nies, are misplaced—are groundless—are morbid? We 
may say it if we wish to mark and notify our own low 
place on the scale of spiritual perception. 

It is then as starting from this point that the seve- 
ral elements of a Christian belief take their order of 
sequence. It is as occupying this ground—the ground 
at once of humiliation and of hope, that the Christian 
accepts the articles of his Creed—each of them as in- 
volved in that which precedes it. It is thus that he 
professes his belief in the mystery of the Trinity—the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 235 


Incarnation, and the propitiatory sufferings and death 
of Christ ; and it is thus, and it is as standing in hope 
of life eternal, that he welcomes the assurance of the 
triumphant resurrection of his Saviour, who “ having 
died for our sins, rose again for our Justification.” 

To many, whose religious feelings are slender, and 
whose faith is mainly conventional, the resurrection of 
Jesus is coolly assented to as a “well authenticated 
fact,” carrying with it—of course—the truth of the 
Christian scheme. To Christ’s true disciples his rising 
from the dead is of infinitely more moment than any 
such attestation. : 

I affirm therefore that proposition with which I set 
out, That the SUPERNATURAL, as we find it in the 
Christian Scriptures, is not merely an attestation of 
the truth of the system, as a Revelation from God ; 
but is the ground and reason of that hope of immor- 
tality which is the life of the soul. 


THE THIRD INTENTION OF CHRIST'S MISSION, AS 
ATTESTED BY MIRACLES. 


In entering upon this ground I must be understood 
as not attempting to meet all possible objections, or 
even to satisfy every reasonable doubt: all I ask is, 
that those with whom I may suppose myself to be in 
converse are of serious mood; and I suppose them to 
admit that the Christian system, such as we find it in 
the books of the New Testament, rightfully commands 
the thoughtful regard of every well-constituted mind ; 
and also—That, as we find in these memoirs an histori- 
cal consistency, or InDIvIpUAL CoNn@RuItyY, which is 
of a very peculiar kind, it must be reasonable to follow 
it up as a safe guidance, and to pursue this oneness of 
the Prrsonat Ipxa as far as it will carry us; even 
although it may lead us to carry our thoughts beyond 
the boundary of this visible mundane scene. 

I do not hesitate to make this demand, nor to ask 
the thoughtful to accompany me a few paces forward 
upon this dim road. What, in fact, is the initial 
supposition on the ground of which we consent, at 
all, to listen to Christ as the Teacher of things which 
can be authentically known by man only through the 
aid of a Revelation from Heaven? Plainly it is this, 
that the things of the “ three score eas and ten’’— 

(386) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 337 


the things “seen and temporal ’”’—the things that 
‘perish in the using,” are far from including all that 
we have to do with while these few years are running 
out; or in other words, in surrendering ourselves, in 
any degree, to the Christian argument, we implicitly 
grant, that the Human Family stands related, not 
merely to the Creator and Ruler of all things; but to 
a great scheme of Universal Government, which is de- 
veloping itself slowly—and in part, now and here ;— 
more fully hereafter, and elsewhere. 

But if we grant so much as this, it necessarily fol- 
lows that Hu who, on entering upon this earthly plat- 
form, professes that He comes forth from a higher and a 
wider region of the Universal Government, and declares 
Himself to be conversant with, and to be perfectly in- 
formed concerning the transactions and the persons of 
that higher stage of things, should in His discourses, 
and still more in His acts and course of conduct, give 
indications of the same, which can be intelligible only 
on the supposition here asked for. 

Such a Vistror from a foreign world may either 
discourse at large concerning the things, the persons, 
and the transactions of that world; or He may observe 
a rigid reserve on every subject of that class. Christ 
does not take the first of these courses ; He does not 
freely and copiously speak concerning a supermundane 
system ; but neither is His reserve absolute. He utters 
himself thereupon in a very distinct, and in a peremp- 
tory manner; but He goes no further :—He gives no 
narratives, He relates no incidents; He says nothing 
that might either tempt conjecture, or stimulate curi- 
osity. Yet it is quite certain that a recollection, on 

29 


“ 


838 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


) 


our part, of Christ’s professed relationship to orders of 
being not of the human family, is indispensable to our 
completing our idea of his PERSON, as interiorly co- 
herent and consistent. Let me again, and with em- 
phasis, use that comprehensive word—ConeGRuIty, and 
affirm that, whereas this majestic harmony of the moral 
ingredients of Christ’s individual character—this fitness 
and symmetry, which—if we make allowance for the 
inconceivable obliquities of a few minds—has always 
subdued, as it does now subdue the minds of men, and 
does win their reverential affection—this perfect con- 
sistency, intellectual and moral, would be marred if we 
were to set:off from our conception of His character 
this, His hypothetic relationship to orders of being that 
are not of this family. 

Does not that conception of Christ’s demeanour and 
style which we gather from the four Gospels—does it 
not include the idea that we are in the presence of one 
who is acting at the impulse of a purpose deep-hidden 
in his own bosom? Does it not seem that he has a 
consciousness of facts, in which the men about him are 
not sharers? Does he not move forward as if he were 
bringing about ends remote from the proximate inten- 
tion of what he says and does? Christ’s acts are fre- 
quently, or seem to be so—incidental to his principal 
purpose: His teachings are fragmentary, because the 
bearing of his doctrine is shared between this—the 
visible world, and another world. Huis miraculous in- 
terpositions for the relief of human suffering appear to 
have been prompted, at the moment, by human impulses 
of compassion; but they are done as if he deflected, 
for the time, from his course in performing them. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 339 


Does not the Saviour of the world walk the earth, and 
make his way through the crowd, as one whose eye is 
fixed upon objects beyond its horizon ? 

If, in an attempted explication of Christ’s language 
in relation to a spiritual system, we adopt the meagre 
hypothesis of supposing that He adapts himself, by ac- 
commodation, to the superstitious belief of the Jewish 
people of that age, what we do is not merely to abate 
our confidence in his sincerity as a Teacher; but we 
remove from the historical conception of his character 
a set of facts, the reality of which is indispensable to 
its completeness. It is then chiefly on th?s ground that 
I feel it to be unavoidable to understand his language, 
when concerned with an invisible world, as carrying a 
meaning that is literally true. 

Assuming so much as this, then what it comes to, 
expressed in the fewest words, is this—That the history 
and destinies of the Human Family have become Gf the 
word may be allowed) entangled with the history and 
the destinies of tribes or orders, partakers with it of 
intelligence, and moral consciousness, and liberty of 
will; but subject to another administrative economy, 
and not included in the same remedial dispensation. 

The consequences of a belief such as this, whether 
imaginary or real, are nothing to me: it may be of 
ill-tendency ; and I am sorry if it be so, but my sorrow- 
ing will not make facts other than they are. Can I 
walk about this world—can I make my way through 
the streets of towns—can I enter the dens that consti- 
tute some of those streets, and then persuade myself 
that a supposition of this kind is abstractedly, or that 
it is theologically incredible? Alag! this must not be 


340 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


said. The customary pretexts of scepticism in relation 
to subjects of this class belong to a period now drawing 
to its close—or passed already; a period of shallow and 
frivolous thinking—a period when the actual condition 
of a large portion of the human race—imperfectly 
known, and little thought of, and less cared for, had no 
appreciable influence upon systems of opinion. Theo- 
ries of human nature were put together in closets to be 
banded about in saloons. But what correspondence 
had these scented things with that real world into the 
core of which our modern philanthropy has carried our 
feet ? 

I think that a revolution has already made great 
progress which, in its issue, shall bring about a far 
more deeply-toned belief, as to the spiritual world, and 
as to the destinies of man, than has ever yet taken 
hold of the human mind: and thus if Superstition has 
tyrannized the ages that are past, a quelling con- 
sciousness of awful realities shall rule the future. 

It is Christianity that has given the initiative in this 
revolution; and it is the same that shall draw the genu- 
ine conclusion; but we shall be carried through the in- 
termediate stages of the process by the Atheism of the 
present time, which has the nerve to do what itself 
only could do. <A belief in the bearing of the Chris- 
tian scheme upon a wider circle than that of the human 
family must carry with it an admission of its superna- 
tural attestations; and toward such an admission we 
are tending—the modern Atheism giving us just nowa 
propulsive aid. 

But it may be asked—Are we not receding from the 
field of modern intelligence, and going back to the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 341 


ground of the “dark and pernicious credulity’’—which 
belong to an age of ignorance? I do not ask whether 
the objects before me are such as an ignorant age will 
delight in; or whether a belief concerning them be of 
bad influence, or otherwise. It is certain that the hu- 
man mind has universally entertained suppositions of 
this kind; and therefore there must be a ground for 
them. I wish there were no ground for them, but 
there is; and nothing is gained by refusing to see it. 
There would, in truth, be a powerful motive for ridding 
ourselves of the appalling idea of a Personal Satan, and 
of his hosts, if, in renouncing the “Superstition” we 
could also dispel the “darkness.” But we cannot do 
so; on the contrary, if we refuse to admit this article 
into our pneumatology, as matter of history—then the 
‘darkness’ which shrouds the world thickens around 
us so much the more, and becomes indeed a “ thick 
darkness,” for it is then a gloom, without a gleam. 
So long as we retain an hypothesis which connects the 
history and destinies of the human race with another 
history, and with other destinies, we retain also, in 
some manner, though it be wholly undefined, a sort of 
hold upon the future :—for we then know that there 
is a course of events in progress, which may issue, we 
know not how, for the better. As on the one hand 
there can scarcely be a greater mistake than that of 
supposing the ancient problem of the origin of evil to 
be in any way solved, or the mystery in the least de- 
gree cleared up, by carrying it back to the epoch of 
the Satanic rebellion ; yet, on the other hand, the in- 
road of sin and woe upon the hnman family comes to 
wear a different aspect when it 1s thought of in connec- 
29% 


342 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


tion with this supposition. So thought of, it is at once 
brought into relationship with that scheme which is 
seen to be unfolding itself from the first page to the 
last of the Canonical Books. Seen from the position 
into which we are insensibly led by following this series 
of writers, the evil that is in thzs world, and its attend- 
ant misery, fall into perspective, and exhibit, at least, 
so much of coherence as may result from their relation 
to a scheme within which truth and order reign supreme, 
and upon which a light, though it be only a glimmer, 
does shine. ; 

Especially it is as seen from this position that the 
personal behaviour of Christ, and that the professed in- 
tention of His mission toward man become intelligible ; 
for, to think of Him merely as the Teacher of a pure 
morality, and as the author of beneficial secular max- 
ims, leaves the greater part of His conduct, and of his 
teaching, unaccounted for. To think of Him further 
as the Redeemer of His people, though it supplies much 
of what is needed to give a meaning to both—His be- 
haviour and His teaching, still leaves as much unac- 
counted for, and the clue to this we do not find until 
we accept, in a literal sense, what is declared concern- 
ing the Christ of God as He who should drive the 
‘ Usurper and Tyrant from the world he has invaded. 

This might seem the point at which a writer—in- 
tending to propitiate opponents, and to smooth a path 
from Disbelief to Christian Faith—would introduce 
some hitherto unthought-of hypothesis concerning the 
universality of Redemp ion, or the possible modes in 
which things future, whic. we find to be inconceivable, 
may yet be conceived of. I am about to attempt 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 343 


nothing of this sort. The notorious failure, hitherto, 
of all such endeavours from the time of Origen to this, 
might well be warning enough not to venture a step on 
ground where there is no footing. One scheme after 
another has broken down—and necessarily so, because 
these mitigative theories still include much more than 
those will allow who, on this very account, reject Chris- 
tianity ; and they assume much for which a Christian 
man, who would fain find it, finds no warrant in the 
written Revelation ; and if not, how shall he dare to add 
to that word, or to strike off from it the least particle ? 

The easily recognized characteristics of undigested 
thinking—of reasonings prompted by a predetermined 
issue, and which are reckless of evidence, attach as I 
think, to every one of the hypotheses of universal res- 
titution which have been advanced by men professing 
to respect the authority of Scripture. In the regions 
of Science—reasonings of the same class—the products 
of the very same order of minds, come under the fami- 
liar designation of quackery :—a.dozen philosophies of 
this sort are just now courting ephemeral notoriety. 
The gravity of the subject now in hand should preclude 
the employment of this colloquial phrase :—otherwise 
it would very fitly designate these spurious schemes, 
one and all. In asound mind the momentary solace 
which attends a first listening to a scheme of this sort, 
is quickly followed by a profound dissatisfaction, which 
leaves us in more discomfort than before. 

If then we reject, as I think we must, the mitigative 
theories that have been devised for reconciling our no- 
tions of the Divine Benevolence, as related to the des- 
tinies of the family of man, with facts and with articles 


344 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


of our faith, what do we bring forward in the place of 
them for the purpose of assuaging that state of distress 
and perplexity toward which we are always advancing, 
just in proportion as we steadily think of what is around 
us, and look forward to the future in serious mood ? 

Although it be confessed that there is no hypothesis 
of this sort in reserve which a Christian man can bring 
forward ; nevertheless there are considerations to which 
a belief in the literal—or we may say, the historical 
meaning of certain narratives in the Gospels gives rise, 
and which are of high importance for maintaining a 
religious temper. They are such as these. In the 
first place, the interpretation which we ought to put 
upon Christ’s language and conduct, wherever He had 
to do with those who are spoken of as possessed by un- 
clean spirits or “demons” carries the supposition that 
the relation in which He stood toward beings of this 
class was essentially unlike that which He sustained 
toward the human race. This marked dissimilarity is 
strongly implied in various ways. ‘The passionate utter- 
ances of these beings (unlike as they are to the ravings 
of maniacs) were in no case expressive either of hope 
or submission: they bespoke a well-understood and an 
inveterate hostility :—these exclamations, and these 
sudden recognitions, speak volumes of history—a_his- 
tory that runs far back pio the cycles of duration 
past ;—and it is a history of which there are chapters 
not yet opened. On the part of Christ there is indi- 
cated nothing but a corresponding and a settled ad- 
verse feeling which has no reserves, and no purpose of 
relenting. 

If we go so far as this, then the inference is irre- 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 3844 


sistible, that there may be within the universal govern- 
ment of God, and that there is, in fact—open, conscious, 
and hopeless rebellion. It is true that Abstract Theism 
might show cause for refusing to admit a supposition so 
appalling as this;—but can we indeed walk the streets 
of this world—and profess to think it incredible? Alas! 
it must be granted to be possible—and more than pos- 
sible. But if there be, as we now say, open and deter- 
minate rebellion within the realm of God’s government, 
and if it borders upon us too—and if states of mind 
which nearly resemble such a desperate perversion, are 
facts, attaching even to the human system, then must 
there be ground for a fear—a fear which the ordinary 
proceedings of human governments show to be reason- 
able, of this sort:—when rebellion is rife in a country, 
it is certain that men who are, in many respects, worthy 
citizens, may. easily come to be fatally compromised 
with it, and may find themselves in the end consorted 
with the worst of criminals, and sharing the same fate. 

Again: If facts be as we are now supposing, then we 
get a means of rightly interpreting a large part of that 
discipline which we are undergoing in the present state. 
The ulterior purpose of that severe training through 
the stages of which some, if not all, are passing, and 
which constitutes the individual history of some men 
from the earliest development of reason to the last 
hour of life, is, as it seems, the formation of a firm 
principle of religious loyalty—an enduring acquiescence 
in the procedures of the Divine Government—a prin- 
ciple so fixedly wrought into the soul as that it may 
stand trial under conditions the most difficult that can 
be imagined—not only of the life now present, but of 


846 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the future life. Why the entire schooling of a seventy 
years has been, to some men, what it has been, becomes 
at once intelligible if we admit the supposition that, in 
the life future, with its incalculable revolutions, such 
spirits, thus tried and proved as they have been, shall 
be challenged to undertake services in relation to which 
this immoveable loyalty shall find its sphere, and shall 
be nothing more, as to its iron nerve, than those great 
occasions shall be found to demand. 

Suppositions of- this kind may very ill comport with 
the notions of many good people about Heaven—and 
which notions we may grant to be right in substance 
though wrong in form; but I think they will seem not 
unfounded when, in the next age, Scriptural Interpre- 
tation shall be unshackled, and shall speak out the full 
meaning of the Inspired Text. Meantime I admit no 
element into my anticipations of the future life which 
Ido not see to be distinctly symbolized now, in the 
course of the Divine administration toward individual 
men. Every Sunday, in professing aloud that ‘I look 
for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the 
world to come,’ I understand the “ world to come”’ to 
be such a world as that the present world shall be a fit 
preparation for its labours, and for its endurances, and 
for its trials of religious constancy. 

_ Again: If we admit, in their obvious and historic 
sense, those of the Evangelic narratives which relate 
to demoniacal possessions, the Supernatural element 
therein implied supports an inference which, when in 
the fewest words, and with the utmost caution, we have 
enounced it, should be left to carry its meaning home 
into our hearts, without our attempting to follow it out 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 847 


mto cohsequences—we know not what, and for which 
we have not sufficient warrant, or none at all. 

The entire series of miracles wrought by Christ dur- 
ing the years of His public ministry had—as toward 
mankind—as well a benevolent intention, as a benefi- 
cent issue. This fact is the more to be noted because 
it forms a point of distinction between Christ’s miracles 
and those of His ministers, as related in the Book of 
the Acts—several of which were administrative and 
punitive. But no such use was made of miraculous 
powers by Him who declares that He came into the 
world “not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”’ 
In striking contrast with this rule of the Supernatural, 
as it is seen to govern the Saviour’s conduct toward 
men, is the rule which manifests itself as often as He 
encountered beings of another order, or of another de- 
rivation. In every such instance, the word of power 
carried with it Law, not Mercy:—it was not ven- 
geance ; but it was reprehension and repulse :—the im- 
plied meaning was ever the same—“ Keep your bounds 
—20 back.” 

If it be asked—What then is your further inference ? 
I am prepared with no answer; yet there is before me 
a conspicuous fact—there is here a difference; there 
is a distinction ; and this fact, which I know not how 
to unfold, consists well with the belief which I gather 
up from many scattered notices, strewn over the cano- 
nical pages, and the purport of which is that the Mis- 
sion of Christ—the Son of God, and Saviour of the 
world—was to overthrow a usurpation, and to drive the 
Tyrant from the field he has invaded; and I further 
gather this truth, that, in carrying forward this pur- 


348 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


pose, He shall not fail, but shall triumph; for it is said 
of Him, that ‘‘ He shall lead captivity captive.” This 
ig my resting-place ;—it is not indeed a place of sun- 
shine; but it is as a “‘ covert from the storm,” 

Let it not be said, or imagined, that, in adducing 
considerations of this sort, the intention is to solve 
problems, or to clear up mysteries :—-we may hold it 
for certain that no considerations coming within the 
range of the human mind, can avail for any such pur- 
pose. But what may be looked for, as the fruit of 
these trains of thought, is this—namely, a giving co- 
herence and consistency to many insulated passages of 
Scripture; and more than this—the rendering an aid 
to meditation when we are endeavouring to complete 
our conceptions of the Saviour Christ, as the Deliverer 
of man. A principal element of that Idea—absolutely 
unique as it is, is supplied when we duly regard His 
ministry as it is related, on the one hand to the victims 
of a usurpation; and on the other hand, to its Chief and 
His adherents. 


THE CYCLES OF CHRISTIANITY. 


At this moment a lengthened period of social tran- 
quillity seems to have come to its end; and as to the 
western and cultured races, it has been peculiarly favour- 
able to those reactions of the mind upon itself which 
are natural to it, and beneficial, in their ultimate re- 
sults; but for which no leisure is found in seasons of 
national or political excitement. We are entering per- 
haps upon a period of arduous struggles, of great enter- 
prises, of great trials, and of sufferings as great. A 
period may be before us—not for amusing ourselves 
with ingenious paradoxes, not for dressing up philo- 
sophic schemes of opinion; but tor daring, and for 
doing, and for enduring, whatever energetic men may 
devise, achieve, and bear. The ingenious writers, 
therefore, who, with so much zeal, ability, and vehe- 
mence, have been labouring, of late years, to rid them- 
selves and the world of Christianity, may find that 
their day is gone by—and that it must be their sons, 
or their grandsons, who shall return to this Crusade, in 
some future time of repose, like the past. At this time, 
not only will men of action have no ear for bootless_ 
subtilties ; but such men will feel their need, personally, 
of principles that are already authenticated, and not 
now to be sought for and elaborated in closets. Men 

30 (349) 


350 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


of action, who will have much to suffer, as well as to 
do, will ask for grounds of religious hope and solace 
which time has consolidated, and on which the good, 
the wise, the great, of all ages, have been wont to rest 
in their hour of trial. The Christian Belief shall again, 
as heretofore, be found to meet the need of humanity 
in the years that are before us—years—~u0t of dreams, 
but of realities. 

As to the apostles of the modern impiety—A theistic, 
and Theistic, and Pantheistic,—although their enter- 
prise has failed for the present, and although their 
hopes are dashed, they may console themselves with 
the thought that—if not to them, to their successors, 
another opportunity shall arise for labouring on the 
same stony field. The Christian system will itself 
evolve principles that necessitate these periodic strug- 
gles, and that give them force; and at each return 
with augmented force. 

At this time what is of more importance, and what 
would be more fruitful of good than any imaginable 
triumph over Infidelity—on the field of argument 
would be a wise preparation, on the part of the Chris- 
tian community, for that next coming season when the 
Gospel must anew pass through a crisis of mortal in- 
tensity. A main part of such a preparation would 
consist in knowing clearly whence such an intestinal 
conflict springs, and toward what issue it tends. 

In affirming the Christian origination of the recent 
Infidelity and Atheism, it is needful to distinguish be- 
tween those deep-seated sequences of thought which 
we have just now in view, and those obvious and inci- 
dental effects of patent causes which might have been 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF, 351 


other than they are, and which may or may not bear 
upon a future time. The fact is not to be questioned 
that much of the Disbelief which floats around us, and 
which poisons the atmosphere of towns, takes its occa- 
sion, or derives its power, from what it finds that is 
wrong, or absurd, or merely conventional, in the Chris- 
tianity of Christian people. Materials of this sort are 
rife always, so that men of acrid temper are never at a 
loss when looking about for occasions of that scorn 
which they would fain heap upon the Gospel. There 
is a plenty of Disbelief which springs up, rank, about 
sacred edifices; but what we have to do with at this 
time is—a Spectre that rises from the Adytum. 

The Atheism of this age has a depth which is its 
own only because it has sent its line down into that 
abyss of which Christianity withdraws, in part, the 
veil, This Atheism displays a grandeur which is not 
its own, but which it assumes in rearing its head, and 
looking upward, beneath the vault of that Infinitude 
to which it has gained admittance by favour of the 
Gospel. This Atheism shows, and actually possesses, 
a sensibility, and it has a consciousness of the true, 
the beautiful, and the good, which it owes, conspicu- 
ously and entirely, to the books and to the system 
which it denounces. ‘These tones of tenderness and of 
purity in which it has learned to utter itself—if we 
catch them at a distance, so as to lose what in them 
is articulate, might be mistaken for the silver sounds 
of God’s mercy to man. 

The Atheism which startles us by our fireside, which 
sits with us in pews, which flames out in our literature, 


which is the Apollo of the weekly, monthly, and 


Sa THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


quarterly Press, has not merely learned its rhetoric im 
the evangelic school, and thence stolen its phrases, 
but it has there got inspiration from a Theology of 
which itself is only the necessary antithesis. Hvoke 
now from Hades a genuine Atheist of the classic Pagan 
Church, and bring him within hearing of a modern 
Atheistic lecture, and the very terms of the discourse 
would be unintelligible to him. You must baptize him 
before you can convince him that you are his disciples, 
or that he is indeed one of yourselves. The Creed 
in which he lived and died was a marble paradox, and 
you have a great work to do in him before he can be 
made to listen to a breathing sophistry, with its Chris- 
tianized heart, and its soul of fire. An Atheistic phi- 
losophy which is indeed earthborn, and which steams 
up from the dead levels of the Pagan world, is a mias- 
ma, in breathing which nations are overcome with 
drowsiness—intellectual and moral, and walk about 
dreaming, thousands of years, unchanged. But a 
Christian-born Atheistic philosophy comes over a 
Christian land, at periods, as a cloud, riding upon the 
winds—it mutters blasphemies—it smites the earth 
with its forked scourge, and it moves away. 

The very same body of facts concerning the woes 
and disorders—hopeless as they are, and purposeless 
as they seem, which press upon humanity—these facts, 
rudely regarded by the sages of pagan antiquity, and 
which impelled them to reject the hypothesis of a 
Supreme wisdom, benevolence and power——come before 
us now, unchanged, or scarcely mitigated, and they 
not merely perplex the reason—they do more, they 
distract us, because we have been long trained in the 


_ THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 353 


meditative converse with an idea of the Supreme wis- 
dom, benevolence, and power, immeasurably surpass- 
ing any conception of these attributes which the 
ancient mind had ever entertained. That which was 
an insoluble problem to the ancient classic reason, is 
also, to the modern mind, a problem insoluble ;—but 
it is more than an intellectual stumbling-block, for it 
puts at fault our consciousness of first Truths. 
Moreover, while Christianity has, to so vast an ex- 
tent, enlarged our religious conceptions, and has taught 
us to think so much more profoundly, and more justly 
in whatever touches our higher nature, the advances 
of Science, which in a manner expand our conscious- 
ness over the fields of infinite space and time, help to 
impart an awful intensity to every subject that has any 
theologic aspect. Then the same Gospel which pene- 
trates our souls with warm emotions—dispersive of 
selfishness, brings in upon the heart a sympathy that 
tempts us often to wish that itself were not true; or 
that it had not taught us so to feel. At these points 
then we come upon an interior antagonism—a deep 
counteractive energy, whence springs almost with peri- 
odic regularity a disbelief, of which Christianity is the 
immediate object, inasmuch as it is its incitative cause. 
During a period of repose, such as that which we 
have passed through, the Christian system, its doctrines 
and its moral energies, working freely upon a people 
whose mind and speech submit to no censorship, pro- 
duces effects of two kinds—the one being the antithesis 
of the other. The first of these is the product of its 
own proper influence, which is to refine and enhance 
the humanizing sensibilities of the people, in their re- 


50% 


354 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


spective classes :—many of the highest will be seen to 
signalize themselves in courses of self-denying and truly 
noble philanthropy; while the lowest class, to some ex- 
tent, are weaned from their rudeness and their ferocity. 
At the same time the large middle class becomes alive 
to whatever touches the well-being of mankind, near at 
home, and afar off, and tax themselves heavily to give 
effect to many generous enterprises. In effecting these 
ameliorations Christianity shines with its own light, 
and shows its derivation from a world of love and ° 
order. 

Also, and at the same time, and because the minds 
of men are at leisure, that reflective and meditative 
sensitiveness of which Christianity is the source, and 
which it so much cherishes, and favours, evolves ad- 
verse theories, and gives birth to schemes of Christian- 
ized philosophy (first within the pale of the Church) 
and then of antichristian philosophy, beyond those 
limits. From this same perplexed meditation spring, 
in their ancient order of sequence, Pantheistic and 
Atheistic schemes, which might be spoken of as the 
Congestion of thought in minds, often of fine mould, 
though not the most robust. Take two men of equally 
humane temperament, and train both of them under 
Christian influences, and lead them both, day after 
day, through scenes of human degradation and wretch: 
edness :—the one of them whose structure of mind is 
the most ordinary, and also the most healthy, will ad- 
dict himself, forthwith, to some instituted labour of 
Christian benevolence, and he finds himself, though 
much worn, yet happy in his path of toil. The other, 
and who is intellectually the choice sample of the two, 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 355 


deeply ponders what he sees:—he thinks, till he be- 
comes miserable ;—he throws up his religious profession, 
and wildly looks round for some doctrine or a theory 
that may assuage his anguish:—he finds no such doc- 
trine, and the collapse of conflicting feelings leaves 
him—without God, and without hope in the world. 
Deprive the first of these men of his Christian belief, 
and of his Christian motives and hopes, and he will 
presently ‘‘faint and be weary’ in his work. But 
withdraw from the mind of the other those lofty con- 
ceptions of the Supreme Wisdom and Goodness which 
he received at first from Christianity, and he would 
quickly find himself able to turn away from scenes of 
human misery with frivolous indifference. 

We may be sure that whenever Christianity has so 
far wrought itself into the mind of a people as to give 
existence among them to many self-denying enterprises 
of benevolence, and to sustain these labours in vigour 
from year to year, it will also have produced a reaction, 
within the same community, uttering itself concerning 
the evils that abound in the social system in tones, 
which at first are querulous—then ferocious, and at last 
blasphemous. If on all sides of us there are peniten- 
tiaries—reformatory prisons—missions among canni- 
bals—and those latest efflorescences of Christian love 
—ragged schools—then there will also be heard lectu- 
rers and writers, some of them men of genius, who, 
beginning their career as humane reformers, end it as 
murky misanthropic Atheists. Just as the pains and 
troubles of a man’s individual lot may drive him to 
snatch at the knife or poison of the suicide, so may the 
anguish and the despair with which a sensitive hea.t 


356 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


contemplates the miseries that are in the world impel 
him to open the veins of the immortal spirit, and let 
go forth the life-blood of the soul. 

This is that sifting of spirits—this is that fiery trial 
which, with a peculiar intensity, is going on at this 
time, and is putting to the severest proof the loyalty— 
the religious allegiance, of many minds born and trained 
within the pale of Christian influence. To each of us, 
in a more or less pointed manner, the critical question 
is now put whether we will stand by Heaven—by Truth 
—by Goodness; or will range ourselves with primeval 
rebellion, and be compromised with those whose quarrel 
with God may be older than the mountains ? 

This trial of constancy is now severe; but a time is 
inevitable when it will have become more so. One need 
not be gifted with a prophet’s eye to foresee this: for it 
is a course of things—it is an issue, that is involved in 
the present condition and tendencies at once of religious 
feeling, and of Abstract Thought. 

Those who, by God’s help, have survived (in a re- 
ligious sense) a conflict of this kind, eagerly turn to the 
Evangelic records of Christ’s discourses, that they may 
discover if He has made any provision—or if so, what 
provision, for securing the tranquillity of those who 
“‘believe and are sure’ that He is the true inter- 
preter of God’s ways toward men. How is it that — 
this “ Physician of souls’’ goes about to heal the deep 
wounds of those whose wounds have touched the im- 
mortal life? We cannot open the Gospels without 
acknowledging that the lips of this Teacher breathe 
love and peace—health and power, as well as wisdom. 
May we not therefore confidently look to Him for the 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. Sak 


resolution of our perplexities—for the solving of dis- 
tracting problems? will He not shed some light upon 
the dark mysteries of this world? He does nothing 
of that sort which we so much desire! He is fixedly 
abstinent in relation even to subjects which the Jewish 
mind of that age had become in some degree alive to. 
He does not propound the main articles of a Theistic 
belief, or speak of them as if they needed to be 
ascertained or defended. Much less does He recog- 
nize, as if they were a burden upon that belief, the 
staggering difficulties which oppress us, of this age, 
and with which the thoughtful in all times have so 
vainly striven. That heavy load of troubled specu- 
lation which weighs us down, does not seem to have 
come into His view when He invites the weary to 
seek their rest in Him. This “Man of sorrows,” and 
‘acquainted with griefs,” gives no expression to those 
griefs which, to many of the thoughtful and sensitive 
among His followers, have outweighed the pressure 
of the most extreme personal sufferings, so that they 
have been tempted to say—‘‘I am indeed afflicted— 
yet would endure all with cheerfulness, if the thick 
darkness that overspreads these heavens were with- 
drawn, or if only I could see a verge of the dawn upon 
the cloud.” 

On one occasion, when a perplexity nearly of this 
class stood out suddenly in His view, there is heard 
from His lips a singular outburst of devout exultation 
—‘ I thank Thee, O Father ’’—which in no way chimes 
in with our modern comfortless feeling. When, from 
the ridge of Olivet, He wept over the doomed city— 
its palaces and ‘Temple, His sorrow was of that sort 


803 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


which resembles the spontaneous grief of a parent who 
foresees the miseries that are in store for a rebellious 
child:—the trouble was of the concrete, not of . the 
abstract kind. 

And yet if we do not find in the teaching of Christ 
that which we should so gladly find, we find at least 
the rudiments of peace, and a remedy against distrac- 
tion, which, if we will accept it and use it, brings with 
it as much acquiescence as is to be had, in the nature 
of things, on earth;—and as much, perhaps, as is 
to be found even among those that have encircled 
the Eternal Throne since the morning hours of the 
Creation. 

If there presents itself—and such a surmise will 
present itself, a surmise of this kind—That the terms 
and phrases which are employed by the Canonical wri- 
ters when they speak of the Divine attributes of Wis- 
dom, Goodness, Love, are used, as of necessity, because 
there are none others; but that these terms must not 
be so understood, or so interpreted by us, as would 
bring them into parallelism with our finite conceptions, 
or with any human modes of thinking and of feeling, 
and which would warrant the free outflow of our sym- 
pathies in harmony with our religious beliefs ;—if we 
are thus tempted to think, then a suspicion so disheart- 
ening is dispelled when we consent to listen to Christ 
as what He declares himself to be—namely, not merely 
a Messenger, sent by God to man, but far more than 
this—the Living Representative of the Divine Nature, 
so far as the Infinite Mind can become cognizable by 
the finite mind. Now as Representative of God among 
men, we hear Him say—“ He that hath seen me, hath 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 359 


seen the Father also,” and it is certain that what are 
called the moral attributes, are, in a much ampler sense 
cognizable by us than the natural attributes can be. 
It is not merely that Christ, authenticating His mes- 
sage by miracles, teaches us with authority concerning 
God; but He treads the earth as the genuine Image 
of the Invisible God ;—and, as such, He assures us that 
the Universe is one, in its moral constitution—that the 
language of Heaven is literally interpretable among 
men—word for word; and that whatever marvels might 
surprise us in traversing the skies, we should every- 
where find ourselves at home, as to our moral intuitions. 
The language in which we embody our notions of the 
True, the Right, the Good, the Loving, is not a dialect 
of this province; but it is the universal style of God’s 
kingdom in all places. 

Precisely therefore as we, if.we be humane, are 
prompted to “do good to all, even to the evil and the 
unthankful,” so, and with a feeling strictly analogous 
to this, does the Father of all dispense His benefits. 
In a sense corresponding to our own consciousness— 
He is righteous in His administration—He is no re- 
specter of persons—He is merciful—compassionate— 
slow to anger—ready to forgive—and a Hearer of 
prayer. But He is firm of purpose, true to His word, 
and sure to give effect to whatever originates with Him- 
self. The Saviour Christ does not in words vindicate 
the ways of God to men; but better than this, He 
stands before us asa Living Theodicaea—an intelli- 
gible expression of those attributes of the Divine Na- 
ture which carry with them, if not an implicit solution 
of the dark mysteries of the moral system, yet an anti- 


5U THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


dote to the fatal effect they might have upon our minds; 
and this is certain, that if there be rebellion in any 
province of the universe, it is a resistance to such wis- 
dom, such rectitude, and such love, as are brought down 
to our apprehension in the Person of Christ—the Christ 
of God. 

And yet, if by this means a Theology is set before 
me which commands my approval, something more is 
needed to afford me the intimate satisfaction which I 
need; or at least to convey to my heart a uniform 
peace—a sentiment, as well as a conclusion of the rea- 
son. J-may make progress as to my conceptions of - 
the Divine Nature; and yet the further I go in assimi- 
lating my own state of mind to those conceptions, so 
much the more does darkness thicken around me when 
I look abroad, and when I tread the crowded thorough- 
fares of this world. It is true that there are obvious 
considerations which, if they be wisely entertained, 
suffice for convincing me that those troubles and pains 
that affect myself have been, and are, not more than a 
needful and beneficial discipline, which finds its suffi- 
cient reason in the wholesome products by which I am 
morally the gainer. But where shall I find the shadow 
of a reason, applicable to the millions of instances in 
which the miseries of this life are taking effect in no 
such remedial manner ; but the contrary—are the very 
source and cause of aggravated vice, and of deeper and 
deeper wretchedness ? 

At this point it becomes evident that, as the ground 
of a settled religious composure in looking abroad upon 
the human system, such as it is, and ever has been, I 
need something more than hitherto I have found. Ab- 


/ 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 361 


stract Theism is serviceable to a certain extent; but it 
leaves me to contend, as I may, with formidable sur- 
mises, and to abide under the shadow of mysteries that 
have always defied human reason. On this ground the 
brightest lights and the darkest shadows—not blended 
by any diffusive medium, show the harshest contrasts. 
When I advance from this ground and come upon the 
illuminated field of the Biblical Theism, there is here 
indeed both light and warmth: nevertheless, as we have 
just seen, it is this very Theism, well defined as it is, 
and pure, which gives a proportionate intensity to the 
trouble that draws its too valid reasons from the spec- 
tacle of human nature—erring, suffering, and far from 
hope. 

Where then shall I find peace? Shall I school my- 
self in apathy, and resolutely refuse, any more, to care 
for ills which do not infringe upon my personal ease 
and enjoyment? I cannot do this, if I would. I dare 
not persuade myself to assume this insensibility, even 
toward the million with whom I have no tie of near re- 
lationship :—how then shall I attempt it as toward the 
few whose welfare is dearer to me than my own. Philo- 
sophy will not help me. Theistic Theories fail me at 
the very point where I might look to them for comfort; 
nay, they mock me at that point. The Theism of the 
Bible, if it be considered abstractedly, renders me ten- 
fold more alive to perplexities of this kind than I should 
have been without it :—it is the very soul of that con- 
sciousness upon which the evil and the woe around me 
so powerfully take effect. 

I see before me but one way of peace; and yet even 
this is not rest to the Reason, for it does not bring with 

31 


362 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


it a clearing away of thick clouds; it is not the opening 
of a bright azure overhead ; but it is the commencement 
of a composure which establishes itself in the heart in a 
spontaneous and gradual manner. Devoutly I believe 
that there is not in this world (and probably not in any 
other) more than one position in occupying which the 
human mind—if it be sensitive, and unselfish, and in 
every sense alive, can be exempted from those distract- 
ing perplexities which are incompatible with moral 
health, and which abate virtuous energy. 

Already I have listened to Christ as a Teacher sent 
into the world on God’s part, to make known to me 
what I could not otherwise have known. I have learned 
also to regard Him as the Representative of the Moral 
Attributes of God, so that, in contemplation of Him I 
acquire a consciousness, as to those attributes, which 
is genuine and trustworthy, and sufficient too for my 
guidance and support in the exigencies of this life. It 
remains then that I think of, and live in. communion 
with the same Christ as the FAuLTLESS MAN, in whose 
demeanour, and in whose words and actions, I find an 
intelligible authentication of every emotion, and of 
every sensibility which I ought to allow, and to cherish, 
as good and reasonable, and as truly related, not only 
to those facts which come within my own range of 
vision; but to those also which lie far beyond it. In 
the demeanour, in the discourses, in the conduct of 
Christ—the Trur and Favuttiess May, I see reflected, 
as in a mirror, all things of all worlds that touch, or 
that belong to, the moral state and consciousness of 
the intelligent creation—that is to say—all those facts 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 863 


which, if I saw and knew them, would affect me with a 
corresponding joy or sorrow. 

It must not be pretended, on the adverse side, that 
the Evangelic Memoirs, containing as they do the 
whole that we can now know of Christ, are too frag- 
mentary—too inartificial, and too brief, to warrant my 
deriving from them the comprehensive PrrsonaL Ippa 
which now I am in search of. Infinitely preferable are 
these fragmentary Gospels, in relation to the purpose 
before me, than would be any imaginable biography, 
framed upon a philosophic principle. In any instance 
where the Individual Man of a past age is to be 
thought of, vividly and correctly, give me genuine 
fragments of his actual life, and of his familiar con- 
verse with his chosen friends, and keep far out of my 
sight the generalizing portraiture which may be offered 
to me by some writer who is more full of himself, than 
of his subject. This is, I think, the rule in observance 
of which the ablest recent writers of history have made 
0 great an advance upon the practice of their prede- 
cessors. ‘The Gospels, rigidly analyzed on the prin- 
ciples that are now authenticated within the depart- 
ment of history, offer to me precisely the materials 
which are the most to be desired, in such a case. 

With these materials in my hand—with these 
sketches—these hints—before me, I come into the pos- 
session of a conception of the Personal Christ as com- 
plete as I have of any personage of the ancient epochs. 
And I acquire this distinct conception notwithstanding 
the fact that this Person is such a one as had never 
before trod the earth, nor has the like to Him trod it 
since. And be it observed that this Perfect Idea which 


364 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


has concreted itself in my mind, is not a vague outline 
of godlike majesty; but it has the vivacity and the in- 
telligible distinctness of a likeness, taken and fixed, at 
various moments, by some infallible and instantaneous 
process. All things mundane I must regard as a 
troubled dream—all history must become. as an inco- 
herent myth, if it be not certain that the Christ of the 
Gospels is a reality, and the incidents of His life in 
the strictest sense historical. 

This being so, and as I have on other grounds con- 
vinced myself that this Christ of the Gospels unites in 
His Person the qualities and virtues of human nature 
with the attributes of the Divine nature, I draw near 
to Him in the confidence that I shall find indicated 
in His behaviour, in His words, and in His actions, 
those views and sentiments regarding the subjects that 
most perplex me, which, if I could but attain the same, 
would give me composure, at least. While I approach 
Him—even ‘Jesus, Son of David,” thronged by the 
multitude, I see Him as one who is conscious of all con- 
ditions and states of being—visible and invisible—the 
past, the present, and the future :—the present and the 
visible must in His view keep their proportion, as rela- 
ted to the unseen and the eternal. 

It is certain that it is not insensibility—it is not 
insensitiveness of temperament, whence springs the se- 
renity of that brow, and the governed calm of that 
countenance. But then may it not be that, in the 
depths of that unfathomable soul, wherein the weal of 
all creatures is entertained, no regard is had to those 
ills and pains of an hour or a day, the witnessing of 
which moves me to pity, and disturbs my peace? If I 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 3865 


might be tempted to think so, then I follow the course 
of this Saviour of the world, and note what is the 
quality and the intention of His miracles, from the first 
of them to the last. Now in this series there occur not 
more at the most, than two or three exceptions to the 
rule, that they were interpositions, having for their 
purpose the relief of bodily sufferings, or the supply of 
bodily wants.—They were (with these few exceptions) 
just such acts of spontaneous Sympathy as my own 
feelings would prompt me to imitate, every day, if I - 
could, when mingling with the concourse of crowded 
cities. In this sense we may reverse the Scripture, 
and say, ‘the mind that is in me, was also in Christ 
Jesus.” There was in Him compassion on a level 
with the most ordinary of the ills that affect human- 
ity. It was not that, to Him before whose eye the 
immortality of the thousands around Him was laid 
open, their present pains—their lameness and palsy, 
their blindness and deafness, their hunger and their 
thirst and weariness, were ot small or no account. 
It was not that a forethought of the boundless future 
bred in Him a lofty indifference toward pains and ills 
so ephemeral as those that weigh upon mortality. 
Viewed on this ground, and in relation to the inference 
which I have now in view, the series of evangelic mir- 
acles carries with it a peremptory conclusion. The 
case before us is one in which the less involves the 
greater. It is certain that Hz who knows, and who 
has in his view all that I see and know, and far more, 
and whose emotions of pity are like my own—yet far 
more acute, and uniform—has also in His view, such 
facts, or such prospects as are more than sufficient for 
31* 


366 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


the double purpose, first of securing an habitual com- 
posure and tranquillity, and then for holding entire an 
unshaken loyalty toward God—the Sovereign Creator 
and Ruler of the universe. 

If now the question be put to me, whether my Chris- 
tian Belief enables me to rid myself of that burden 
of far-reaching care and trouble which I share with 
the thoughtful of all ages—my reply is this—In truth 
I have not found the means of ridding myself of this 
burden; but in the Gospels I have found Him in com- 
munion with whom I am learning how to bear it; and 
thus I hope to bear it to the end, still retaining my 
faith and trust in God as supremely Good and Wise— 
‘a Just God, and a Saviour.” 


THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE ARGUMENT CONCERNING 
CHRISTIANITY : ERNEST RENAN. 


It is one thing to i Inquire concerning the present posi- 
tion of an argument, in a strict sense, and another thing 
to give a reply to an indefinite question relating to the 
variations of English opinion, thereto nthe within 
this or that community at a particular time. The first 
named inquiry is logically distinct; and it may admit of 

a single and a categorical reply: the other is likely to 
receive contradictory answers; and yet each may be 
true in a sense, or true in part. The reply to the first 
question, if rightly given, will be peremptory and con- 
ciusive ; and moreover it will carry with it a conse- 
quence or an inference, bearing upon what ought to be 
the next following step in the same direction. A reply 
to the second all indicate consequences that are preca- 
rious, and which may or may not be realized :—in such 
case—no one can say yea or nay—confidently. 

As for instance—the present position of the argu- 
ment concerning Christianity is such—if the mere 
reason of the case in hand is to prevail—that it can 
admit of only one further step. But even if, in the 
strictest logic, a conclusion finally in favour of our 
Christian Belief should be admitted, it will by no means 
follow as an inevitable consequence, that a people—the 

(367) 


368 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


people of Germany, or of France, or of England—shall 
therefore yield itself to what is admitted to be the rea- 
sonable issue. This is far from being a necessary result. 
Influences that are always rife, and always in active op- 
eration, may avail, as heretofore has happened several 
times in the course of ages, to bring about a condition 
of national, and almost universal Atheism. We, on the 
Christian side, are too ready to assume as certain what 
is in fact exceedingly doubtful—namely this—that a 
Christianized community will always and forever hold 
to its profession—because in reason it ought to do so. 

Lhe actual mood of the public mind toward Chris- 
tianity at any particular time is very much the conse- 
quence of the influence of individual popular writers— 
who may sway the literate classes, this way and that, for 
a season: it is a to-and-fro movement—it is a hot and a 
cold fit, which intermits from year to year. Not so— 
AN ARGUMENT concerning a mass of facts. In the con- 
duct and the issues of a great argument, no such varia- 
tions of the public mind can rightfully have any place. 
THE ARGUMENT has its own stages :—it has its slow de- 
velopments, and its crises, and it will have its issue in a 
determinate manner. We shall see this in making a 
report of a notable recent instance. 

Fits of national unbelief, with an Atheistic chill fol- 
lowing, or attending them, are likely to arise among an 
imperfectly instructed and a much-reading people from 
various causes, but especially from this, that the contro- 
versy between Christian and Antichristian writers has 
lately come to the surface in an inverted order. This 
mistake in method is attributable, quite as much to the 
ill-directed zeal of the Believing, as to the astutenesg of 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 369 


the Unbelieving combatants. On both sides a ground- 
less hypothesis concerning the conditions of a written 
Fevelation has been assumed, as if it needed no proof, 
When we reject this hypothesis, then a vast mass of 
argumentation—learned and proper in its place—ceases 
to take any bearing; or it takes only an indirect bearing 
upon the question of Christianity, as affecting ourselves 
now, and in the future life. 

It is a very natural prejudice that prompts us to im- 
agine that a Revelation—in the form of a written mes- 
sage from above—ought, as to its literary quality, and as 
to the conditions under which it comes into our hands, to 
conform itself to certain notions of fitness, and propriety, 
and exactness, that seem due to its heavenly origin. 
This prejudice—it is nothing better than a prejudice— 
assumes all forms among our religious communions :— 
with those who are the least well informed it exists as an 
absurd superstition, attaching itself to the Authorized 
Version, and even to the spellings of our English Bible: 
with those who are a little better informed this supersti- 
tion has taken up the Textus Receptus as its rock, or its 
anchor ground: then comes the more erudite critical 
doctrine in support of which volumes upon volumes of 
learned apology are every year issuing from the Press. 

But what becomes of this same pious hypothesis in 
behalf of Holy Scripture—the Book of God—when we 
place it alongside of our religious interpretations of the 
great book of the material world, and when we look about 
upon the Universe, considered as God’s creation? We 
_know in how dark and comfortless a mood the Oriental 
mind—from the earliest ages to the present time—hag 
continued to peruse the book of nature—presented to it 


“ 


370 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


as the product of infinite Goodness, Wisdom, and Power. 
The Oriental sage affirms that the animal orders are not 
—cannot be, from God— the Kternal Father ;” but 
are the work of the demiurge—a being of inferior 
attributes, and doubtful beneficence. In like manner 
among ourselves, the ways of the Almighty are discussed 
and eriticized in a mood of gloomy perplexity, on the 
ground of an hypothesis which, in tact, is wholly gratui- 
tous, and which is the product of a theology that is itself 
factitious. A time must come when suppositions which 
already have given way in their imagined bearing upon 
the material world, shall also cease to take effect upon 
Biblical Interpretation. When this time shall have fully 
come, Unbelief will have lost its occasion, and apologistic 
criticism will have lost its importance. 

I have just now said that the subjects of debate in 
the Christian argument have come to the surface in an . 
inverted order. In an instance such as that of the 
Christian argument, the logical order which the subjects 
in debate should obey, is plainly this.—In the first place 
it is to be asked—Are the principal facts on the reality 
of which everything rests real, or not so?—Are the 
allegations concerning them true or false? If they are 
mainly true, then this conclusion carries in itself all that 
we need much care about as to the documents wherein 
the alleged facts are reported. But if, on the contrary, 
the principal allegations are untrue, then a laborious dis- 
cussion concerning the literary merits, and the age, and 
the authorship‘of the writings will barely repay the pains 
of those who take it in hand:—such a discussion will be 
consigned, by the busy world, to the care of the few who 
abound in leisure and in learning. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. OL 


If we are sincere—if our motives are approvable in 
entering upon this great argument, then we shall remand 
to a future hearing, and shall put off to a convenient 
season, all evidences for and against the hypothesis that 
the documents in our hands—to wit—the Gospels and 
Hpistles, are of Divine origin, and are therefore author- 
itative in a religious sense. This done, and the ground 
cleared—we take in hand the purely historie problem 
which relates to the truth of the facts alleged. Whether 
the writings which report these facts were divinely in- 
spired, or were simply human products—this is an after 
question. 

We take up the argument therefore in this its proper 
and reasonable order, as to the subordination of subjects. 
Let it be assumed then that we have done with questions 
concerning the Inspiration and infallibility of the Seript- 
ures in detail. We have done, therefore, with piles of 
books and pamphlets on the one side—samples as they 
are of frivolous and malignant criticism, intended to im- 
pugn and destroy popular beliefs concerning the Bible. 
We have done also, on the other side, with the groundless 
anxieties of those—learned and ingenious writers—who 
have come forward to maintain this popular faith. The 
truth of the facts is all we need think about at this time. 
And now if we inquire concerning the present position 
of the Great Christian Argument relating to the truth 
of the Evangelic Facts, we are excused from the neces- 
sity of calling into court the band of Christian advocates ; 
inasmuch as we have at hand evidence that is more avail- 
able than this: we have before us, in series, the succes- 
sion of Antichristian advocates, and we may at this mo- 
ment listen to the conclusive and most pertinent testi- 


S12. THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


mony of the last and the best of them, who, as from a 
vantage ground, and himself personally endowed with 
the highest qualifications fitting him for the task, at once 
passes sentence upon his predecessors—one and all—on 
the same side, and gives expression to what must be—if 
itself be inadmissible—a final effort on that side to solve 
the problem of historical Christianity. 

Of each of the several suppositions that have been 
resorted to in recent times for solving the problem of 
historic Christianity, this is true of it—that it rejects and 
finally disposes of its immediate precursor, and by in- 
plication it contradicts its penultimate precursor. Thus 
it was that the base-born and ill-considered ribaldry of 
the Voltaire era met its refutation from the pens of the 
German Rationalists, who admitted, for the most part, 
the honest intention of the Evangelists, and accepted the 
reality of the history—minus—the miracles. But the 
insufficiency of this mode of disposing of the supernatu- 
ral element was soon felt, and by many it was acknowl- 
edged; and at length a formal and elaborate refutation 
of the theory was undertaken, and ably executed by Dr. 
Strauss. This acute and accomplished writer—thor- 
oughly master of his materials—advanced step by step, 
and at every step held up Rationalism to scorn. A bet- 
ter hypothesis than that of the Rationalists must, he said, 
be devised. The mythic origin of the Gospels, and the 
Idealistic uprise of Christianity, was therefore brought 
forward to supplant Rationalism, and to fill the chasm 
which the removal of it had occasioned. 

But this same chasm quickly yawned anew—The 
“myth” was pronounced to be—an impracticable 
scheme. A substitute for this also must therefore be 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 3738 


found, and we now have it in the recent volume of M. 
Ernest Rénan. Yet again the same law of demolition 
takes effect, as before. ‘The mythic origination of the 
Gospels is first formally rejected by M. Rénan, and the 
historic reality of THE Person of Christ is amply ad- 
mitted ; and much more than this is granted, as we shall 
see. Nevertheless, while the enterprise upon which 
Strauss had expended so much labour is peremptorily 
declared to be futile—to be nugatory and inapplicable, 
the ingenious author of the scheme receives from his ac- 
complished and courteous headsman a due acknowledg- 
ment of his personal merits. So itis that the man in 
black, who wields the fatal axe in front of the block, says 
to his kneeling victim— Forgive me the poked have 
no malice toward you in my heart.”’ * 

Each of these instances, in its turn, supplies an illus- 
tration of what must be the course of things, under the 
circumstances ; and this peculiarity of the Antichristian 
argument deserves, at this moment, peculiar attention. 
In any imaginable instance if the case be of this sort— 
namely—That a difficult problem, whether historical or 
physical, is propounded, and a solution of it is attempted 
by opposed parties—each reasoning upon the ground of 
a foregone conclusion, then, when argumentation has pro- 
ceeded some way, the final issue will indicate itself—on 
this side, or on that, a while before it is openly recog- 
nized :—as thus.—Be it that the two opposed conclusions 


* “Tia critique de détail des textes évangéliques, en particulier, a été 
faite par M. Strauss d’une maniére qui laisse peu a désirer. Bien que M. 
Strauss se soit trompé dans sa théorie sur la rédaction des évangiles, et 
que son livre ait, selon moi, le tort de se tenir beaucoup trop sur le terrain 
théologique, et trop peu sur le terrain historique.”’— Vie de Jésus: Intro- 
duction, p. viii. 

32 


374 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


are absolutely contradictory, the one of the other, so that 
—if this be true—that must be false. On the one side 
it will be seen that those who take up the argument in 
succession move on toward an issue in the way of a grad- 
ual approximation :—each reasoner, in his turn, brings 
forward a hypothetical solution which is substantially an 
advance upon that of his immediate predecessor :—at 
least it is an approach—it is an amendment—it does not 
overthrow, or flatly contradict what has gone before ;— 
but it improves upon it, and disengages the hypothesis 
from some perplexing anomaly. ‘Thus each of these 
reasoners nears the true issue as by the method of ‘ ex- 
haustions.”” Every page, almost, of the history of our 
modern physical science offers an instance which might 
be brought forward to exemplify this averment. 

On the opposite side—the side of those who are la- 
bouring to make good the contrary conclusion—the course 
of argumentation will be this—The reasoners on this op- 
posite side come forward, each in his turn—each, in com- 
mending his own hypothesis, speaks of it as a new con- 
jecture—which rests its claims to be listened to upon 
the plea of the admitted failure and falsity of all pre- 
ceding schemes. Each advocate presents himself in a 
confident manner, and turning round to those on his own 
side, who have already shot their arrow and missed the 
mark, says—‘‘ You too have misapprehended the prob- 
lem before us. You also are quite wrong. We must, 
on our side, go to work anew.’’ ‘The issue of an argu- 
ment which has thus given a premonition of its nugatory 
and delusive quality, will be to show that al/ have indeed 
been wrong—and the last speaker not less wrong than 
his predecessors. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. B15 


So we find it at this very moment: the Great Argu- 
ment is still at issue concerning Christianity. The ac- 
complished writer—whom I have named—M. Ernest 
Rénan, brings the problem forward on ground which ig 
indeed new, on the Antichristian side ; or it is new as to 
the large admissions which he makes—and which he 
makes with cordial feeling, on behalf of the Hvangelic 
history. But then these admissions—made in this mood 
—must not win a hearing from us until we have con- 
sented to reject, and have actually put out of view, 
whole and entire, the myth hypothesis of Strauss. 
Thus it was that Strauss, in his turn, had given the coup 
de grace to the Rationalists :—he had treated them with 
scorn and derision: he had said—‘‘ You are altogether 
wrong—You have mistaken the facts—The Gospel is 
not a reality in any historic sense—it is nothing but a 
myth.” So did the Rationalists, in their day, rebuke 
their precursors—the frivolous and ignorant revilers of 
Christ. Destruction and contradiction—administered 
freely to those on their own side, is the law—it is the 
logical characteristic of the Antichristian Argument. 
And such will be its issue—and this issue awaits it, near 
at hand. A course of argument—pertinaciously adhered 
to in the desperate endeavour to establish a false posi- 
tion, takes effect, by retroversion, upon the methods of 
reasoning which have thus been misused. The logician 
who utterly fails in his argument, breaks or blunts his | 
own tools. 

Those on the Christian side who have already noted 
this characteristic of the Antichristian Argument, and 
have therefore looked out in expectation of what must be 
its next turn, may well rejoice—nay, they may exult in 


376 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


seeing that, in taking this necessitated turn, the move- 
ment has fallen into such hands as those of this learned, 
eloquent, and seriously-minded writer. Nothing more 
auspicious—on the Christian side—could have been 
thought of than is this which has actually occurred. M. 
Ernest Rénan is the man who possesses those qualities as 
to his personal dispositions, and his reputation, and his 
accomplishments, that should fit him for the task which 
he has now achieved. This task is of a twofold kmd: 
for, it is first, that of ‘‘ reporting progress ’—or rather, 
no progress—on the Antichristian side ; and secondly, it 
is that of giving the highest possible advantage to his 
own hypothesis concerning the Person—l’homme mcom- 
parable—of the Evangelic history ; nothing less ample 
than this hypothesis could now—as he thinks—be ad- 
mitted with any chance of success. From this time 
forward, therefore, no writer—unless it be some one of 
the lowest grade in literature—will refuse to grant, at 
least as much as this intelligent and learned writer has 
now explicitly granted. There is then*an end of the 
Antichristian Argument—so far as Ernest Rénan has 
disallowed the grounds of it. Unbelief, if it is dated 
earlier than the publication of this book—the “ Vie de 
Jésus ’’ — has died by the hand of an accomplished con- 
spirator. 

But the hypothesis of M. Réenan—if it be taken along 
with his concessions and his admissions—cannot be 
thought of as if it might be a final issue in the argument 
concerning Christianity. A scheme of this sort—fantas- 
tic as it is, and wholly gratuitous—not only asks to be 
carried out to its natural consequences; but it demands, 
from its contriver, to be set clear of the contradictions 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. Bye: 


which it so largely imbeds, and to be stripped of its 
poetry also, which is an impertinence. The concessions 
of the “ Vie de Jésus ”—incompatible as they are, one 
with another—are these. 

The first of them—embracing whatever it implies, but 
does not specify—is, the historic reality of—“ la personne 
sublime du fondateur’’—the author of the new religion. 
This leading concession is amplified in many passages of 
eloquent eulogium, and of beautiful description. The 
personal history is granted, not as with sullen reluctance, 
but readily, and it is expanded, and it is vindicated, and 
its outline is filled in with much vivid colouring: What 
becomes then of Dr. Strauss, and of the unreal mythic 
Christ ? 

The second of these concessions gives us back the 
antiquity, and the substantial authenticity of the four 
Gospels—by whomsoever they were actually written, or 
in whatsoever manner they were put together, in their 
present form (Introduction, xvi and onward). The 
writers—it is affirmed—were either eye-witnesses of the 
acts of Christ, or they embodied in their narratives au- 
thentic original memoirs. This affirmation, at large, is 
applied specifically to each of the Evangelists; and the 
critical grounds on which it rests are briefly stated in the 
course of the Author’s Inrropuction. These critical 
grounds of belief in the Evangelic documents it is not 
important to my argument to repeat. It is enough that, 
after setting off the miracles, we are told that we tread 
solid ground in listening to the Four Gospels! It is 
enough that—“ les évangiles, sans cesser d’étre en partie 
légendaires, prennent une haute valeur, puisqu’ils nous 
font remonter au demi-siécle qui suivit la mort de Jésus, 


o2* 


378 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


et méme, dans deux cas, aux temoins oculaires de ses ac- 
tions.’’ These admissions help us therefore to sweep the 
field of vast heaps of futile argumentation; and it is 
evident that we are now drawing on towards a conclusion 
—whether on this side, or on that. 

M. Rénan, in giving a résumé of his criticism of the 
four Evangelists, repeats the expression of his confidence 
in them, as substantially trustworthy narrators of what 
they saw—although, as to each, it is on grounds peculiar 
to each :—“ Kn somme, j’admets comme authentique les 
quatre évangiles canoniques.” Matthew, he says, is un- 
rivalled in reporting the discourses of Christ. The Gos- 
pel of Mark—revised by Peter, is, in an historic sense, 
of more firm texture :—it is the most ancient, and the 
most original. ‘This Gospel abounds with those minute 
notices in matters of fact—i. e. visible events—which, 
without doubt, indicate an eye-witness. It is in this 
precision, as to facts, that we recognize the consenting 
testimony of Peter—who had followed Jesus from first to 
last. Luke, in M. Rénan’s opinion, is to be listened to 
with more caution—more reserve ; but it is certain that 
in compiling this, which is a regular biography of Christ, 
he had under his eye some original documents, which 
have been lost ; but which contained facts and discourses 
unknown to the two—Matthew and Mark. The Gospel 
of John is, as M. Rénan thinks, of ambiguous authority ; 
nevertheless his Gospel contains passages of high and un- 
questionable authenticity.” 

It will be for those who, on the Antichristian side, shall 


* It may be well to note M. Rénan’s rejection, absolute, of the Apocry- . 
phal Gospels—unworthy, as he thinks, of a moment’s comparison with the 
Four:—they add to these nothing that can be accepted as of any value. 
(INTRODUCTION, p. xliii.) 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 379 


follow this writer’s steps, in the mode of a severe criti- 
eism, to show that what he here accepts as real in the 
rise of Christianity, contradicts and disallows the hypoth- 
esis which he labours to uphold. ‘The bone of Unbe- 
lief, ill set by M. Rénan, must be broken anew ; never- 
theless he will have had the merit of calling forth, on the 
side of material Atheism, a future Goliath of loftier 
stature and of hoarser voice, and that will not now be 
slow to come. Meantime why should we, on the Chris- 
tian side, endeavour to drive this candid worshipper of 
the prophet of Galilee across the lines*of belief, or insist 
that he should take his place on the Antichristian side ? 
Why should this be done—inasmuch as twenty passages 
might be cited from this “‘ Vie de Jésus’ in which the 
author gives expression to a sincere and ungrudging ad- 
miration of one of whom, in the last lines of his book, he 
says—whatever may be the future in human history, 
“‘ Jésus ne sera pas surpassé. Son culte se rajeunira 
sans cesse: sa légende provoquera des larmes sans fin: 
ses souffrances attendriront les meilleurs cceurs; tous les 
siécles proclameront qu’entre les fils des hommes, il n’en 
est pas né de plus grand que Jésus.” 

This “ sublime personne,” says M. Rénan, who pre- 
sides every day even now over the destinies of the world, 
may properly be called divine. The author has exhausted 
the resources of panegyric in his book. What more 
then, on the side of Belief, do we ask for? What more 
can we in reason demand? What we ask is this—That 
there should be some fitness or congruity im the en- 
comium as related to the historic subject of it. As it is, 
M. Rénan’s glowing commendation of the hero of his 
romance reaches the utmost pitch of absurdity in its 


380 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


grotesque disagreement with the historic characteristics 
of the real Evangelic Person. Put now out of view 
the problem of the supernatural, which the author 
evades, and this “‘ Vie de Jésus”’ will stand as a signal 
instance of failure in the line of those whose genius has 
seduced them into the attempt to work a fable out of a 
history :—a fable—true in the shell, utterly false in the 
substance. 

Are there any among us—on the Christian side—who 
would wish to see a formal refutation of this illusory 
book ? ‘The best ‘refutation of it is that which it receives 
in a moment when an ingenuous reader, in closing it, 
opens one of the Gospels—let it be that one to which 
M. Rénan affixes his special authentication. The feeling 
of revulsion and disgust is irresistible. On every page 
of this pretended “ Life of Jesus,” there is an utter mis- 
conception of the facts, and of the mind and meaning of 
the whole ; and most so, of the mind of Christ. What 
is to be complained of is not any malignant misstatement 
of the facts ; but it is a strange—one might say, a bur- 
lesqued misconception of them. An instance analogous 
to this may give some aid in rightfully and candidly in- 
terpreting M. Rénan’s innocent bewilderment. Take the 
case of an intelligent Hindoo or Persian, who visits Eng- 
Jand—his note-book in hand :—the foreigner has access 
daily to the home and the office of a public person con- 
cerning whose character and acts he wishes to inform, 
first himself, and then his countrymen, on his return. 
He is veracious, and keen sighted, and observant. But 
look now into the diary of this Oriental—You will find 
everything there to be at once quite true in a sense, and 
utterly false also: everything is recognizably exact in 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 381 


the outward form, yet—everything is absurdly—it is lu- 
dicrously out of position. This Oriental goes about mis- 
interpreting whatever he sees and hears, not so much 
because he is ignorant of our usages, as because the mo- 
tives—the conventional reasons—the moral instincts, and 
the higher and more refined consciousness of the English 
gentleman and statesman are of a sort of which the Hin- 
doo or the Persian has not even a remote conception. It 
is thus that M. Rénan, on every page, misconceives Him 
whom he vaguely designates as the-—personne sublime— 
the founder of Christianity. 

Misconceptions of this species—bewilderments in fact 
—do not admit of rectification:—the book therefore is. 
safe from refutation—it will continue to be devoured by 
uneasy disbelievers. It will never again be spoken of 
after the day when the next voice, on that side, shall 
have uttered its thunder. 

It can be no amazement, on the Christian side, to find 
that the Curist of the Evangelic history has been so 
strangely misunderstood by a writer who, while he has 
the genuine documents of Christianity full in his view, 
and diligently read, yet fails to see, or to apprehend at 
all those foremost principles that are the main character- 
istics of what he calls—‘ a religion for mankind.”” One 
might think that a prominent rudiment of the Christian 
system is—The doctrine of an after life—even the im- 
mortality of the individual man, and an inheritance for 
him in the heavens. One might think that Christ’s often- 
uttered answer to the urgent question—* Is there for- 
giveness of sins with God?” could not have escaped the 
notice of a reader of the Gospels—even of the most 
careless reader. One might have supposed that the 


382 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


renovation of the moral and spiritual life in the individ- 
ual believer, would not fail to present itself as a promi- 
nent article in the preaching of Christ and of his Apos- 
tles. Nevertheless of none of these principal matters 
does this learned and industrious writer appear to have 
obtamed even a remote conception, as if it had a place 
in the public ministry of Christ. The question here is 
not, whether these doctrines or principles are true, or 
illusory ; but this only—were they not included in 
Christ’s teaching? did they not stand foremost in his 
own view of the objects of his mission? Who can doubt 
it that has read the four Gospels, or one of them only ? 
Not a line in this “* Vie de Jésus” gives evidence on be- 
half of the Author that he himself has any sort of con- 
sciousness of things spiritual—the life of the soul toward 
God. I will not here be put off with a taunt—* You are 
using the Evangelic slang—we know the sound of it.” 
From such a judgment I appeal to the Catholic con- 
sciousness of the Christian community in all times.— 
There is a life of the individual soul toward God :— 
there is a beginning of this spiritual life in repentance— 
faith—love, and the hope of eternal life. There is an 
individual spiritual life, to teach, and to give effect to 
which, Curtst lived, died, and rose again; but of none 
these things does this writer know even the rudiments. . 
He may reject the supernatural if he pleases:—he may 
think it enough to underline a half of the Gospels with 
his vapid and inane phrase—la légende dit. He may 
stare at the problem which he does not attempt to solve ; 
but there is a heavier charge outstanding against him— 
for he wholly fails to apprehend the first principles of 
the Christianity that was given to the world by Christ. 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 383 


M. Rénan finds in the preaching of Christ nothing 
more substantial, or nothing which should claim to be 
reported of in a life of the Author of a new religion— 
nothing better than a sentimental communism, or an 
amended Buddhism. ‘This ‘kingdom of heaven,” so far 
as this writer has been able to gather its import from the 
four Gospels, is in fact a kingdom for earth, not for 
heaven :—it is peace on earth, and harmony and liberty 
of thought and liberty of action, for the individual man, 
and for nations. As to the personal immortality which 
the Gospel promises, it is—the Buddhist eternity of col- 
lective human nature. ‘Thus it is that this writer is con- 
tent to dismiss in silence the deep yearnings of the in- 
dividual soul for a life divine :—it is thus that he puts 
contempt upon the imstinctive apprehension of a future 
retribution :—it is thus that, in his estimation, the . uni- 
versal belief, the hope, the fear, of a world unseen, and 
an individual life beyond death, together with—“la 1é- 
gende’’ concerning miracles, we the supernatural, they 
may safely be set off from the four Gospels. But then 
he says—there is nothing great in history that does not 
rest upon fable—‘ une légende.’’ In such cases it is not 
so much the actors in the fraud that are to be blamed ; 
“ ¢’est Phumanité qui veut étre trompée.”’ 

This mode of solving the difficult problem of Chris- 
tianity will not—it does not now—give contentment to 
clear-headed men on the Antichristian side. Such per- 
sons, who perhaps are popular writers, may quietly allow 
M. Rénan’s romance to have its day, and to be retailed 
in the twopenny literature of the time; but they them- 
selves well know that this accomplished writer has in 
fact brought the great argument, on their side, into a 


384 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


position of extreme difficulty. Never again will it be 
possible for them, or for their successors, to resort to 
random averments, that are indefinite and cloudy, about 
myths, or Oriental idealism, or what not. Antichris- 
tian leaders will grudge to see themselves thus forcibly 
dragged forward into a position where they can neither 
recede nor advance. How is it in fact ?+this fact is 
most noticeable, and I ask attention to it—The Anti- 
christian company, headed at this time by so able a 
spokesman as Ernest Rénan, is led up to that “ Place of 
a skull” where a band of Roman soldiers is doing its 
wonted part upon three who are condemned to die by 
crucifixion. According to the now-authenticated report 
of a witness, the mid-sufferer is heard to exclaim as He 
dies—“ O Pére, je remets mon esprit entre tes mains.” 
This is not enough. This leader of the Antichristian 
band is not willing so soon and so easily to dismiss his 
friends, whom he has summoned to the spot. He de- 
mands their presence even to the latest twilight of that 
Friday. He insists that they shall wait upon the ground 
an hour or more until Joseph of Ha-ramathaim has had 
time to confer with Pilate; and moreover until Nico- 
demus, another “ visionary,” has been able to purchase 
and to bring forward “une ample provision des sub- 
stances nécessaires a l’embaumement.”? These witnesses, 
under the guidance of M. Rénan, and not only they, 
but we all—willing and unwilling—are required to assist 
at the burial—we all are to become qualified, along with 
the first ‘‘ eye-witnesses,”’ to give evidence as to the im- 
portant fact that, when the mangled body had been laid 
upon the fable of stone within the vault, the door of the 
sepulchre was closed—‘ par une pierre tres-difficile & 


— 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIBF. 385 


manier.”’ Night has come on; and we may all retire !— 
History has nothing more to Say concerning the Cruci- 
fied Prophet! What became of the body is not known 
—and can never be known, so thinks the author of this 
romance. 

Who shall stay the pen of the incautious and ill-judg- 
ing author of the “ Vie de Jésus?” Manifestly he has 
here written a paragraph too much, or a page too little. 
He has thrown a complication of difficulties in the way 
of those whose resolution is fixed—never to grant the 
Supernatural. These difficulties should now be. spread 
out to view, that we may better understand the arduous 
task of those who must encounter them. <A few words 
will here suffice.—In two, three, or more places of this 
attractive volume, M. Rénan gives utterance to his opin- 
ion of the moral and the intellectual qualities of the four 
Hvangelists—or, as he would say—of their artzstie indi- 
vidual ability as writers. He greatly admires their sim- 
plicity ; he accepts their manifest literary incompetency, 
which, in the best way, vouches for their truthfulness ag 
reporters of what they had seen. These four writers, or 
certainly three of them, were not the men who could 
have imagined or invented such a life as is that of their 
Master, or who could have framed discourses so divine as 
are those which they have recorded. Let us hear him 
on this matter. I will not take the responsibility of put- 
ting into my own words a passage, the far-reaching infer- 
ence from which might lose something of its value in any. 
translation. M. Rénan (p. 451) speaks of the painful 
fall which the reader is conscious of in passing from the 
history of Jesus (the original memoirs) to the history or 
the writings of his Apostles :— Les évangelistes eux- 

38 


386 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


mémes, qui nous ont légué Vimage de Jésus, sont si fort 
au dessous de celui dont ils parlent que sans cesse ils le 
défigurent, faute d’atteindre a sa hauteur. Leurs écrits 
sont pleins @’erreurs et de contresens. On sent a chaque 
ligne un discours d’une beauté divine fixé par des rédac- 
teurs qui ne le comprennent pas, et qui substituent leurs 
propres idées a celles qu’ils ne saissisent quademi. En 
somme, le caractére de Jésus, loin d’avoir été embelli 
par ses biographes, a été diminué par eux. La critique, 
pour le retrover tel qu’il fut, a besoin d’écarter une série 
de méprises, provenant de la médiocrité d’ésprit des dis- 
ciples. Ceux-ci l’ont peint comme ils le concevaient, 
et souvent, en croyant l’agrandir, lont en réalité 
amoindri.”’ 
- Passages of the same import, relating to the intellect- 
ual mediocrity and the literary inefficiency of the Evan- 
gelists, might be cited from several of the chapters of 
this volume. The upshot is this—that, in the opmion of 
so experienced a critic as M. Rénan, the Evangelists, 
apart from their Exemplar, were quite powerless :—far 
from being able to work in the same style—their original 
apart—they blunder and misunderstand everything the 
moment when they are tempted to step off from the 
terra firma of facts and realities. M. Rénan is very 
positive on this point. Away from their Master, or an 
inch only out of sight of Him—these four writers do not 
fail to show themselves what they are—namely—vision- 
aries, and low in their mode of thinking—rightly were 
they spoken of by the chiefs of the Sanhedrim, as not 
only unlearned, but “idiotic”? Galileans. 

So let us take it. But if it be so, and we are willing, 
on the Christian side, at this time, to grant it, then a 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 387 


startling question presents itself; and we are inclined to 
press for an answer to it:—an answer it must be, out- 
spoken, intelligible, special, and carried forward in its 
particulars. We have just now been present in the 
garden, where was a sepulchre. We have witnessed the 
entombment of the crucified body. We have seen a 
heavy stone rolled up to the mouth of the tomb; and as 
to what afterwards became of the body, no one knows: 
—the facts are lost to history. Certain it is that there 
was no resurrection. 

Whence then have come the closing paragraphs of the 
four Gospels ? 

These closing paragraphs are thoroughly in the style 
of the body of the Gospels—of each Gospel separately. 
There is the same simplicity, there is the same archaic 
majesty—the same dignity—the dignity of guileless 
truth:—there is the same avoidance of passion, and of 
exultation, and the same absence of fanciful amplifica- 
tions. 

That even one of these four writers should have hit 
the Evangelic style, in this case, is a supposition that is 
in the very highest degree improbable. ‘The improba- 
bility is increased incalculably if we must suppose two 
to have done this. What does the improbability amount 
to if the conditions of our argument are not to be satis- 
fied with anything less prodigious than the supposition 
that the four Evangelists—and each in his own manner 
—should have concluded their Gospels in the manner n 
which they have closed them? ‘This is a supposition 
which no well-constituted mind will admit—or not until 
after it has sustained fatal damage by obdurate adher- 
ence to a glaring sophism. 


888 THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 


Upon this writer’s own showing there are therefore 
now no grounds for rejecting the closing paragraphs of 
the four Gospels. ‘These final passages, in which the 
behaviour and the utterances of Christ carry the marks 
of genuineness with peculiar distinctness, could not have 
been written at all, otherwise than—as truthful records 
of what the four writers had actually seen and heard. 
If there be reality anywhere in the Gospels, there is 
reality here. Strong indeed must that infatuation be 
which forbids the author of this book frankly to ac- 
knowledge what his own principles of criticism clearly 
imply. 

M. Ernest Rénan will not fail to hear of this incohe- 
rence and this inconsistency from chiefs of his own party, 
more logical than himself. Some of them will tell him 
that there is now only one way of escape from the em- 
barrassment into which his enthusiasm, his genius, and 
his taste for the picturesque, have betrayed him and 
themselves. He will be told—and told truly—that those 
who refuse to accept the supernatural in a sense divine, 
must be driven into the acknowledgment of it in a sense 
infernal. 

Tt will not be asked of a writer on the Christian side 
that he should put forth a programme of the impiety 
that is next to come. I decline to do this; but I think 
that those who have watched the progress of the Athe- 
istic argument during the last twenty years would not 
find it difficult to foreshow what must be the next-coming 
utterance of it. We may be sure that an awful Neme- 
sis takes effect on occasions of this kind, serious as they 
are: there is a retributive delusion which has already 
come upon many among us who are fondly clinging to 


THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. 389 


the phantom of an easy Christianity that shall offer them 
—a faith, void of hope, and exempt also from fear, for 
the world unseen: they themselves—bereft of immortal- 
ity, and of the last glimmer of Belief. 

Things will not come to their rest at this point. Many 
at this moment are flinging themselves into the arms of 
a writer who, by his sophisms, and the graces of his 
style, has come in as an angel of light to rescue them 
from the dreaded conviction that, after all, this Chris- 
tianity may be true, and that, in passing into the world 
unseen, it shall prove itself so. The prediction may be 
risked that these fond admirers of Ernest Rénan will 
soon hear that he is scoffed at by bolder spirits on his 
own side. Some of these will avenge upon him the ill 
turn he has done them in this “ Life of Jesus.” A con- 
sciousness that the Atheistic cause has been betrayed in 
this instance, will compel its chiefs to give utterance to 
their last adventure for solving the problem of miracles. 
Unbelief has but a step now to take upon its destined 
circle, and it will come round to its starting-point. The 
reader may find this, if he please, in the Evangelic 
record, Matt. xii. 24, Mark iii. 24, and in the parallel 


passages in Luke. 
30" 


THE END. 


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